About Apple Events
This chapter provides an overview of when and how applications use Apple events, with links to more detailed information on those topics. It also provides a brief description of the framework and language support available for working with Apple events in Mac OS X.
An Apple event is a type of interprocess message that can encapsulate commands and data of arbitrary complexity. Apple events provide a data transport and event dispatching mechanism that can be used within a single application, between applications on the same computer, and between applications on different computers connected to a network. The Mac OS uses Apple events to communicate with applications.
Apple events are part of the Open Scripting Architecture (OSA), which provides a standard and extensible mechanism for interapplication communication in Mac OS X. The OSA is described in AppleScript Overview.
Note: Apple events are not always the most efficient or appropriate method for communicating between processes. Mac OS X offers other mechanisms, including distributed objects, notifications, sockets, ports, streams, shared memory, and Mach messaging. These mechanisms are described in “Interprocess Communication” in System-Level Technologies in Mac OS X Technology Overview.
Contents:
A Quick Look at Working With Apple Events
How to Use Apple Events
Framework and Language Support
Last updated: 2007-10-31
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