Applescript compile fails with "Expected end of line, etc. but found identifier"

Question

Hi,
I've written my first applescript to move messages in Micorosoft Outlook to a specific folder.  It is based on existing scripts I found on the internet.  However my version keeps failing to compile with the error "Expected end of line, etc. but found identifier".  I tried the exact same script on another Mac and it works.  I created a very simple version of the script to show the error.  All I am trying to do is get the current selected messages so I can move them:
on run {}
    tell application "Microsoft Outlook"       
        set selectedMessages to current messages
    end tell
end run
and I still get the same errors on the word "messages" above.
MAC is running OSX 10.9.4
Microsoft Outlook for Mac 2011 - version 14.4.3 (140616)
Since the script works on other computers the only thing I can assume is something wrong with the setup.
Any help is greatly appreciated.
- Ben

Answer 1

Frank Caggiano wrote:
twtwtw
Any reason that the parens would be needed on some cases and not in others? As you can see the code the OP posted compiled fine on my system with no need of the parens. Also the OP mentioned that the code did work on one machine but not another so I would assume again the parens were not needed in that case.
JUst curious
regards
Parentheses have the same function here as they do in mathematical equations. They are cues to the compiler about the order in which different parts of the statement should be processed. The problem here, I think, is that the word current is part of a lot of applescript nouns: current date, current application, current messages, current user, current track, current location, etc. That's exacerbated by the fact that message is also a noun in its own right in Outlook, creating an ambiguous bit of grammar. Applescript has to interpret the presence of that word in context, and several factors - different versions of the OS or of the relevant applications, the presence of different osaxen, runtime issues that alter how the Applescript system reads in the scriptability information - could affect how that interpretation plays out.
Context is (apparently) everything, sometimes.