To open the dictionary of Smile, instead of using the regular File ▸ Open dictionary menu item, it is faster to select Smile ▸ Smile dictionary.

The dictionary presents the definitions of the commands (verbs), and the exhaustive description of the classes of objects. An object owns properties, which are fields containing some data such as the object's name or its bounds, and elements, other objects that it may contain: the dictionary provides for each class the list of its properties, and what classes of objects it accepts as its elements.

The dictionary of Smile is organized into "Suites". To view the different Suites of the dictionary, pull down the Index menu in the window of the dictionary of Smile.

Of particular interest when you script Smile is the "Smile events" Suite. The Smile events are the events that Smile will send to the objects - more precisely to the scripts of the objects - in various circumstances. For instance, when Smile opens a dialog, the script of the dialog receives a prepare event: if you want to perform some specific initialization when the dialog opens, you will provide a on prepare the_dialog handler in the script of the dialog:

on prepare the_dialog
    set contained data of dialog item 1 of the_dialog to "Ready" -- initialize the display field
    set name of dialog item 2 of the_dialog to "Start" -- set up button's name
    set visible of dialog item 3 of the_dialog to false -- hide the progress bar
end prepare

Some of the Smile events are sent to all objects, while some are sent only to some specific classes of objects.

prepare, do menu, store, close and delete

may be sent to all classes of object

click in

sent to dialogs

activated and deactivated

sent to windows

drop and export

sent to those widgets in dialogs which handle drag & drop

pick in, keydown and resized

sent to graphic windows or to the objects that a graphic windows may contain.