Inside Macintosh: Text /

Chapter 8 - Dictionary Manager

This chapter describes how you can use the Dictionary Manager to create and work with dictionaries for input methods or other text services. The Dictionary Manager supplies a uniform and public dictionary format that lets you perform searching, insertion, and deletion.

Read this chapter if you are developing or enhancing an input method or other text service component that uses dictionaries.

To use this chapter, you should be familiar with the Macintosh script management system, the Text Services Manager, and parts of the File Manager. The script management system is described in the chapter "Introduction to Text on the Macintosh" in this book. The Text Services Manager is described in the chapter "Text Services Manager" in this book. The organization of the Dictionary Manager is based on B*-trees, used by the File Manager and the Finder. For more on the B*-trees, see the File Manager chapter of Inside Macintosh: Files.

This chapter presents a brief introduction to dictionaries and then discusses how you can make, access, locate records in, and modify them.

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Chapter Contents

About Dictionaries for Input Methods

About the Dictionary Manager

The Structure of a Dictionary

Garbage Data

Dictionary Manager Limitations

Using the Dictionary Manager

Testing for the Presence of the Dictionary Manager

Making a Dictionary

Creating the File

Constructing the Dictionary

Accessing a Dictionary

Opening and Closing the Dictionary

Obtaining Information About the Dictionary

Locating Records in a Dictionary

Locating Records by Key

Locating Records by Index

Modifying a Dictionary

Compacting a Dictionary

Dictionary Manager Reference

Data Structures

Routines

Making a Dictionary

Accessing a Dictionary

Locating Records in a Dictionary

Modifying a Dictionary

Compacting a Dictionary

Summary of the Dictionary Manager

Pascal Summary

Constants

Data Types

C Summary

Constants

Data Types

Routines

Assembly-Language Summary

Trap Macros

Result Codes