The Message Box is a way of sending out commands to make things happen as well as a container to which all kinds of results can be sent.
Many of the properties of HyperCard can be viewed and changed through the Message Box
Type these examples into the Message Box and press return each time
| put the date |
| put the long date |
| put card ID |
| put "HyperCard version"&& the version |
| set the soundChannel to 6 |
| put the soundChannel |
| put the diskSpace && " bytes left on your disk" |
Any script that works in the Message Box will also work as a script in a button a field a card , background or stack. This makes the Message Box ideal for testing ideas or working out why scripts work or dont work
Above we have used put and set. These two words are commands in hyperTalk and they are applied to change or evaluate properties of objects like buttons and fields. Get is a related command, and puts the value of expressions into a variable called It.