PropertyList man page on NeXTSTEP

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PropertyList(5)						       PropertyList(5)

NAME
       PropertyList - ASCII Property List format

DESCRIPTION
       A  property  list organizes data into named values and lists of values.
       Property lists are used by the NEXTSTEP	user  defaults	system	(among
       other  things).	This man page provides a brief and incomplete overview
       for casual users; see <<xref>> for a detailed description of the	 ASCII
       property list format.

       In  simple terms, a property list contains strings, binary data, arrays
       of items, and dictionaries.  These four kinds of items can be  combined
       in various ways, as described below.

       A string is enclosed in double quotation marks; for example, "This is a
       string."	 (The period is included in this string.)  The quotation marks
       can  be	omitted	 if  the  string  is composed strictly of alphanumeric
       characters and contains no white space (numbers are handled as  strings
       in  property  lists).   Though  the property list format uses ASCII for
       strings,	 note  that  NEXTSTEP  uses  Unicode.	You  may  see  strings
       containing  unreadable sequences of ASCII characters; these are used to
       represent Unicode characters.  <<Details?>>

       Binary data is enclosed in angle brackets and  encoded  in  hexadecimal
       ASCII; for example, <0fbd777 1c2735ae>.	Spaces are ignored.

       An  array  is  enclosed	in parentheses, with the elements separated by
       commas; for example, ("San  Francisco",	"New  York",  "London").   The
       items  don't all have to be of the same type (for example, all strings)
       — but they normally should be.	Arrays	can  contain  strings,	binary
       data, other arrays, or dictionaries.

       A  dictionary  is enclosed in curly braces, and contains a list of keys
       with their values.  Each key-value pair ends with a semicolon.	Here's
       a sample dictionary: { user = maryg; "error string" = "core dump"; code
       = <fead0007>; }.	 (Note the omission of quotation marks for single-word
       alphanumeric  strings.)	 Values	 don't	all  have to be the same type,
       since their types are usually defined by whatever program uses them (in
       this  example,  the  program  using the dictionary knows that user is a
       string and code is binary data).	  Dictionaries	can  contain  strings,
       binary data, arrays, and other dictionaries.

       Below  is a sample of a more complex property list, taken from a user's
       defaults system (see defaults(1)).   The	 property  list	 itself	 is  a
       dictionary  with	 keys "Clock," "NSGlobalDomain," and so on; each value
       is also a dictionary, which contains the individual defaults.

       {
	   Clock = {ClockStyle = 3; };
	   NSGlobalDomain = {24HourClock = Yes; Language = English; };
	   NeXT1 = {Keymap = /NextLibrary/Keyboards/NeXTUSA; };
	   Viewer = {NSBrowserColumnWidth = 145; "NSWindow Frame Preferences" = "5 197 395 309 "; };
	   Workspace = {SelectedTabIndex = 0; WindowOrigin = "-75.000000"; };
	   pbs = {};
       }

SEE ALSO
       defaults(1)

       <<TM notice for Unicode?>>

NeXT Computer, Inc.		 March 7 1995		       PropertyList(5)
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