Inside Macintosh: Devices /

Preface - About This Book

Conventions Used in This Book

Inside Macintosh uses various conventions to present information. Words that require special treatment appear in specific fonts or font styles. Certain information, such as parameter blocks, appears in special formats so that you can scan it quickly.

Special Fonts

All code listings, reserved words, and the names of actual data structures, constants, fields, parameters, and routines are shown in Courier (this is Courier).

Words that appear in boldface are key terms or concepts and are defined in the glossary at the end of this book.

Types of Notes

There are several types of notes used in Inside Macintosh.

Note

A note like this contains information that is interesting but possibly not essential to an understanding of the main text. (An example appears on page 1-27 in the chapter "Device Manager.")

IMPORTANT

A note like this contains information that is essential for an understanding of the main text. (An example appears on page 1-10 in the chapter "Device Manager.")

WARNING

Warnings like this indicate potential problems that you should be aware of as you design your application. Failure to heed these warnings could result in system crashes or loss of data. (An example appears on page 1-15 in the chapter "Device Manager.")

Assembly-Language Information

Inside Macintosh provides information about the registers for specific routines like this:

Registers on entry
A0	Contents of register A0 on entry

Registers on exit
D0	Contents of register D0 on exit

In addition, Inside Macintosh presents information about the fields of a parameter block in this format:

Parameter block

<-->	inAndOut	Handle	Input/output parameter.
<--	output1	Ptr	Output parameter.
-->	input1	Ptr	Input parameter.
X	trashed	long	Affected field.

The arrow in the left column indicates whether the field is an input parameter, output parameter, or both. You must supply values for all input parameters and input/output parameters. The routine returns values in output parameters and input/output parameters.

The X symbol designates fields that may be affected by the execution of the routine. Any value you store in one of these affected fields may be lost. Also, the meaning of these fields upon completion of the routine is undefined; your application should not depend on these values.

The second column shows the field name as defined in the MPW C or Pascal interface files; the third column indicates the C or Pascal data type of that field. The fourth column provides a brief description of the use of the field. For a complete description of each field, see the discussion that follows the parameter block or the description of the parameter block in the reference section of the chapter.

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Subtopics

Special Fonts

Types of Notes

Assembly-Language Information