Help Creating Textures, Frames, etc in Lua. And some questions!

[fRodzet]

Greetings,

Okay, so i'm trying to create a complete working AddOn using lua only! I know how to create a few using .XML to make the graphics and add event handlers. But i'm not sure in lua. As an example i'm going to use BagBuddy.

Allright, first i would like to ask if this is considered readable or if it can be written in an better way:

-------------------
--BagBuddy Frames--
-------------------
 
    -- The parent frame to add textures and fontstrings to
    local frame = CreateFrame("Frame", "BagBuddy", UIParent)
    frame:SetWidth(425)
    frame:SetHeight(425)
    frame:SetPoint("CENTER", UIParent, "CENTER")
    
    -- The body texture of BagBuddy
    frame.skeleton = frame:CreateTexture("BagBuddy_Skeleton", "BORDER")
    frame.skeleton:SetPoint("TOPLEFT")
    frame.skeleton:SetTexture("Interface\\BankFrame\\UI-BankFrame")
    
    -- The portrait texture of BagBuddy
    frame.icon = frame:CreateTexture("BagBuddy_Icon", "BACKGROUND")
    frame.icon:SetWidth(60)
    frame.icon:SetHeight(60)
    frame.icon:SetPoint("TOPLEFT", 7, -6)
    frame.icon:SetTexture("Interface\\Icons\\INV_Misc_EngGizmos_17")
    SetPortraitToTexture(frame.icon, "Interface\\Icons\\INV_Misc_EngGizmos_17")
    
    -- The title fontstring of BagBuddy
    frame.title = frame:CreateFontString("BagBuddy_Title", "OVERLAY", "GameFontNormal")
    frame.title:SetPoint("TOP", 0, -18)
    frame.title:SetText("BagBuddy")
    
    -- The button that allows BagBuddy to be hidden
    frame.close = CreateFrame("Button", "BagBuddy_Close", frame, "UIPanelCloseButton")
    frame.close:SetPoint("TOPRIGHT", -22, -8)
    
----------------------
--BagBuddy Functions--
----------------------
 
    function BagBuddy_OnLoad(self)
 
    end
 
    function BagBuddy_MakeMovable(self, motion)
        self:EnableMouse(true)
        self:SetMovable(true)
        self:SetClampedToScreen(true)
        self:RegisterForDrag("LeftButton")
        self:SetScript("OnDragStart", self.StartMoving)
        self:SetScript("OnDragStop", self.StopMovingOrSizing)
    end
 
    BagBuddy_MakeMovable(frame)

the function BagBuddy_OnLoad(self) is empty because i'm not sure on how i would add 28 x buttons to the frame without using an XML template.

The template for the original BagBuddy looks like this:

<Button name="BagBuddyItemTemplate" inherits="SecureActionButtonTemplate" virtual="true">
    <Size>
      <AbsDimension x="37" y="37"/>
    </Size>
    <Layers>
      <Layer level="BORDER">
        <Texture name="$parentIconTexture" parentKey="icon"/>
        <FontString name="$parentCount" parentKey="count" inherits="NumberFontNormal" justifyH="RIGHT" hidden="true">
          <Anchors>
            <Anchor point="BOTTOMRIGHT">
              <Offset>
                <AbsDimension x="-5" y="2"/>
              </Offset>
            </Anchor>
          </Anchors>
        </FontString>
      </Layer>
      <Layer level="OVERLAY">
        <Texture name="$parentGlow" parentKey="glow" alphaMode="ADD" file="Interface\Buttons\UI-ActionButton-Border">
          <Size x="70" y="70"/>
          <Anchors>
            <Anchor point="CENTER"/>
          </Anchors>
          <Color r="1.0" g="1.0" b="1.0" a="0.6"/>
        </Texture>
      </Layer>
    </Layers>
    <Attributes>
      <Attribute name="type2" type="string" value="item"/>
    </Attributes>
    <Scripts>
      <OnEnter function="BagBuddy_Button_OnEnter"/>
      <OnLeave function="BagBuddy_Button_OnLeave"/>
    </Scripts>
    <NormalTexture name="$parentNormalTexture" file="Interface\Buttons\UI-Quickslot2">
      <Size>
        <AbsDimension x="64" y="64"/>
      </Size>
      <Anchors>
        <Anchor point="CENTER">
          <Offset>
            <AbsDimension x="0" y="-1"/>
          </Offset>
        </Anchor>
      </Anchors>
    </NormalTexture>
    <PushedTexture file="Interface\Buttons\UI-Quickslot-Depress"/>
    <HighlightTexture file="Interface\Buttons\ButtonHilight-Square" alphaMode="ADD"/>
  </Button>

Using the above template i would add each button to the frame like this:

function BagBuddy_OnLoad(self)
    self.items = {}
    for idx = 1, 28 do
        local item = CreateFrame("Button", "BagBuddy_Item" .. idx, self, "BagBuddyItemTemplate")
        self.items[idx] = item
        if idx == 1 then
            item:SetPoint("TOPLEFT", 40, -73)
        elseif idx == 8 or idx == 15 or idx == 22 then
            item:SetPoint("TOPLEFT", self.items[idx - 7], "BOTTOMLEFT", 0, -7)
        else
            item:SetPoint("TOPLEFT", self.items[idx - 1], "TOPRIGHT", 12, 0)
        end
    end
end

but this is easy because i can inherit the item's from BagBuddyItemTemplate in my XML document. How can i create something similar using lua only?

Also how do i set alphaMode="ADD" in lua?

Hope you guys understand what i'm trying to accomplish, if not, please ask me and i'll try to explain