One principle of object-oriented programming is that how a class operates internally is hidden. All interactions with a class are defined by the external interfaces for the class. These external interfaces are broken up into several categories.
Properties Accessible parameters for objects of the class. Examples of properties are height, width, and length for boxes, and radius for spheres.
Methods Defines all the functions you can call for objects of the class. Examples of methods are moving or rotating a 3ds Max object, adding a modifier to a 3ds Max object, and accessing the position of vertices in a 3ds Max object. The terms method and function are synonymous in this document.
Operators Defines the math and other symbolic operators that are defined on values in the class. An example of an operator is the '-' operator, which will perform a mathematical operation on numbers, colors, vectors, and matrices, but will perform a Boolean subtraction when used with 3ds Max objects.
Constructors The various ways you can create objects of the class. For example Point3 0 0 0 and <color> as Point3 are constructors for the Point3 class. Executing either of these constructors will create a new Point3 object.
Literals: Any literal form for objects of the class. For example [0,0,0] is a literal form for the Point3 class, and "Hello world" is a literal form for the String class.