Terminology

While Maya and 3ds max share lots of similarities, both applications and their respective scripting languages use slightly different terminology to describe the same or similar features.

MEL	MAXScript	Description
attribute	property	A characteristic or parameter of an object or other item in a scene.
command	method	A basic element of the scripting language telling the software to perform a specific operation
flag	parameter	An argument to the command / method
group	block expression	A group of statements/expressions that can be executed as a single statement/expression
node	object, modifier, controller, materials, map etc.	In Maya, nodes are base building blocks. In 3ds max, different plugins classes implement different objects (in the OOP meaning of the word). node in MXS has a different meaning (see below)
object	node	In MEL, an object is a scene object. In MXS, a scene object is called a node (or scene node)
procedure	function	A named group of commands that can be executed as a single command