Written by three of the WoW addon community’s superstars, WORLD OF WARCRAFT PROGRAMMING: A GUIDE AND REFERENCE FOR CREATING WoW ADDONS (Wiley Publishing, Inc.; May 2008; $39.99) is an all-in-one guide to writing addons for World of Warcraft. Addons can take various forms, from simple changes to the functionality and appearance of toolbars and hotkeys to sophisticated suites that perform statistical analysis of in-game economies and trade.
This guide is geared towards using Lua, a popular programming language used in video game development. Specifically, Lua is used for in-game scripting and creating addons for World of Warcraft. The authors cover the most relevant material, as well as a number of pitfalls and common mistakes that the reader may experience in development. No prior programming experience is assumed, although familiarity with languages such as PHP or JavaScript may be useful to the reader in picking up the Lua language. WORLD OF WARCRAFT PROGRAMMING also includes complete instructions on how to implement a number of specific addon concepts such as:
Unit frames
Secure templates
Dynamic frames
Parsing tooltips
Dropdown menus
Scroll frames
The final section of WORLD OF WARCRAFT PROGRAMMING is a comprehensive reference guide to the World of Warcraft API. Having a fully indexed, consistent set of reference documentation makes finding the specific function developers need much easier.
With comprehensive coverage, this book guides aspiring developers through learning Lua and XML, creating several example addons, and provides them with an indexed reference for the API. WORLD OF WARCRAFT PROGRAMMING is perfect for those users who are interested in learning how to script and write addons, and will appeal to established addon authors looking for definitive reference material for the World of Warcraft API.
You can pre-order the book at Amazon.com. They are offering an additional 5% discount on pre-orders, but that is only until they start shipping it. It is due to be available on shelves at your favourite book retailers May 5th (in the US).
About the Authors:
James Whitehead II is the author of LightHeaded, PerfectRaid, Clique, TomTom, and other addons available at WoWInterface. He is also coauthor of Hacking World of Warcraft.
Bryan McLemore joined the UI community in early 2005 and cofounded the Ace Project and WowAce.com. His "day job" is in Web development.
Matthew Orlando is the author of BuyEmAll, CogsBar, MacroTalk, and other popular WoW addons. He's a programmer and maintains Cogwheel's Complete Macro Guide.
The book’s cover art was created by Lar Desouza and it’s based on the characters of Looking for Group, a popular Word of Warcraft-based webcomic: LFGComic
Are you the author of a mod that you think belongs in this spotlight? Just upload/update it to our site, and it will automatically be considered for that week's Pick.
Also a note to both compilation creators and end-users: we are sub-dividing the Suites & Compilations category. As such, we're asking for suggestions from the entire community as to the sub-categories they would like to see added. For compilation creators, we're asking that if you'd like to have your compilation moved to a specific sub-category to please drop a PM to any of the site staff asking for it to be moved to that category. We're trying to sort through them on our own, but we never object to assistance. ;)
Are you the author of a mod that you think belongs in this spotlight? Just upload/update it to our site, and it will automatically be considered for that week's Pick.
Seerah has done another lovely overview of a new mod on the scene, Panda. You can check out her review here.
Also, just a little note since it hasn't been fixed by Blizzard yet - if you're one of the people having problems with your chat settings not saving between sessions, Tekkub has put out a temporary fix you can use until Blizz comes up with a permanent solution. You can get his fix here.
A heads-up to UIC users. UICentral, as created by site member Amthea, has been pulled from the site as it has come to light that there was a copyright infringment inside the application code. An unlicensed key was utilised to create a part of the application, and so to act responsibly, and protect the party invovled, we have pulled the file from the website.
We are dissapointed that this has occured but at the same time pleased that this has been brought to our attention as we do not condone such practices.
With this in mind we are looking to create our own application in-house so that this can not occur in the future. Work will begin immediatly on the new application for mod updating. Thanks to everyone for being so patient while we investigated and checked through everything. We'll update you soon :)
Posted by Rushster 5 hours ago
According to follow up posts, this affects their IncGamers' Client as well:
Quote:
RagabashMoon 2 hours ago
Ok, just uninstalled UICentral, and now I've gotten that java applet thing, but I look forward to a new proper version of a program I can use to scan my mods and keep them up to date! :) Oh, the "IncGamers CLient" is included also? Ok, i'll get rid of it.
In addition, ChaosInc provided this information as to why they have taken this step:
Quote:
Site Admin ChaosInc 2 hours ago
ROFL, just thought about it. The problems with the trojans we had back in the day all makes sense now!
Quote:
Site Admin ChaosInc 2 hours ago
In a nutshell, he used a cracked version of a Java app and got caught. In turn, they threatened to take "legal action" against the site unless it was pulled. Needless to say, however, we would've pulled it anyways.
What does this mean? It means UIC is no longer available IN ANY FORM from this point forward. But as Rush has stated we plan to have another application designed from the ground up without the worry of some piss-ant lawyer breathing down our necks about "distributing applications without checking first that the program used was a legit copy. Ignorance of proper licensing is NO EXCUSE!". Honestly, how the hell are we supposed to check that crap anyways? Ask 'em? Psh....
So as per their "legal request", we'd also like to ask anyone who has dl'd UIC in ANY form to please remove it from their comp. Of course, we can't check this, but apparently they think we can. Next they'll be asking for everyone IP that's dl'd it. But no worries, that's what we call "invasion of privacy", so everyone who's gonna start fretting about that can relax.
Rush has sent a personal apology on the matter and we have met their requests on the matter to avoid "legal action". As of this point, we should be left alone and we can get back to work on important things, like deciding who's buying the next round of Poptarts!
Oh damn, I said a product name! Please don't sue us, Kellogg's!
So, if you use IncGamers' UICentral, it has been discontinued. You will need to update your mods manually from their site until they have their new updater written.
Author Credit is given on a simple basis. We credit the person who sends the mod in, and says "I wrote this" if you see your work here, and its credited to someone else contact us first using the link at the bottom of the site. Please remember more than one person can make the same mod.
