GUI's

[TinkerUI]

I think us newbie coders have the hardest time with one thing: Starting out.
I know I learn best if I have something to learn from, and I think It'd be awesome if someone took the time to make a simple AddOn that like.. has a small movable frame with a button on that maybe, minimizes/maximizes it.

I found a mod that was just a moveable window and I'm messing around with it, but Its hard to get a button to work if every time I make a code change it crashes wow when I click it

[Cairenn]

Originally Posted by TinkerUI I think us newbie coders have the hardest time with one thing: Starting out.

Heh, ain't that the truth?

[Beladona]

The problem is making something that is advanced enough for intermediate coders to find useful, but simple enough for newbie coders to understand. The fact of the matter is, the best source for either is still just the base WOW UI files, so it really is best to just start there.

What we need is better documentation. WOW Wiki, while useful in many ways, is only as good as the people updating it. We need someone dedicated enough to document all event, api methods, global variables and strings, and other things that many of us have had to find on our own without due documentation.

I may tackle this at a later date, but it would take a lot of work, info gathering, and constant updating, none of which I have time for at this point...

One thing I am currently trying to do is create a lua / wow xml editing plugin for Dreamweaver. I use Dreamweaver for a lot of code writing, and have managed to get successful syntax highlighting with lua, but am still trying to package it into something everyone can use (with code hints)

[Cairenn]

Originally Posted by Beladona The problem is making something that is advanced enough for intermediate coders to find useful, but simple enough for newbie coders to understand. The fact of the matter is, the best source for either is still just the base WOW UI files, so it really is best to just start there. What we need is better documentation. WOW Wiki, while useful in many ways, is only as good as the people updating it. We need someone dedicated enough to document all event, api methods, global variables and strings, and other things that many of us have had to find on our own without due documentation. I may tackle this at a later date, but it would take a lot of work, info gathering, and constant updating, none of which I have time for at this point... One thing I am currently trying to do is create a lua / wow xml editing plugin for Dreamweaver. I use Dreamweaver for a lot of code writing, and have managed to get successful syntax highlighting with lua, but am still trying to package it into something everyone can use (with code hints)

If you do, you'll make a lot of newbie coders very happy.

[Gello]

The syntax checkers and stuff that reads blizzard's UI.xsd are nice but to those starting out it's like handing a book on Swahili grammar to someone who's never spoken a word of Swahili before.

A good approach to teaching the WoW UI would be a documented step-by-step building of a mod from something simple to complex. Once the relationship between the syntax and semantics falls into place by example, all of the wowwiki suddenly makes sense.

I find that building a mod happens in stages which anyone who's done any programming is familiar with:

1. Write out the intent of the mod, with a bunch of ideas that may or may not be doable: We want a mod to keep track of looted items. We want the items to be clickable links, to show who looted what and when. We want to make the results show in a scrollable window.
2. Draw a mock-up of the GUI in paint shop or any graphics program: Define which columns we want in the list, we want a reset button, where will settings go? If there's a ton of options it's best in a separate window. For a couple settings they can go on the main window.
3. Lay a workable foundation in the lua: Create a mod that saves looted items into an internal table. Make a temporary slash command to spit back the results.
4. Lay down the xml elements one layer at a time: Options and altering the elements can wait, we can keep those defined in the lua for now. Create the list, add the scrollbar, reference the interface.mpq to grab textures, reference the FrameXML lua's to see what we're actually inheriting for our controls.
5. Mesh the two together: Make the xml elements react to the lua and vice versa. Plugging in the scrollbar to our internal table, adding the code to react on a push of the reset button, etc.

Most can do 1-3 fine but get stuck on #4. A tutorial to lay some foundation of the elements would be an invaluable document. Once I get recap and hitlist settled I'll see about writing one up. The information seems overwhelming but once you get the basics down the work is 40% design, 20% looking stuff up in the wiki, 10% actually coding it (and 10% debugging hehe).

[Cairenn]

And what you are talking about will make them even happier! Please do!










Time to reveal a well hidden (or maybe not so well hidden) secret.

I can make neither heads 'nor tails of the coding involved in WoW's interface. I open up any file to try to figure out how someone has done something, and I'm just totally and completely lost.

I don't consider myself a particularily stupid person, but the coding here is sure making me feel stupid. I just can not get my head around it, no matter how many times I try. I try to read the "tutorials" that people have done, and it's just complete information overload. It's exactly like you said, it's like I'm trying to read Swahili. And it's frustrating beyond words.

When I look at the fact that I knew nothing about coding, or about graphics manipulation (alpha channel, what's that?) when I first started out with UI modding back in EQ, and then look at what I was able to do by the end ... one would think that I should be able to do this without any problem. But I just can't. It confuses the hell out of me.

I really desperately need someone who is willing to sit down, take the time and explain it to me, to show me that if you do X, it causes Y. I mean, the simpliest of things. How do I hide the gryphons on the ends of the bar? Should be simple, right? I can't manage to thread my way through the code enough to figure out where they are defined, where they are called and sized, and thus how to turn them off.

It's not like I even want to make major functional changes or anything. I'm all about re-arranging things on the screen and substituting graphics, giving it a new "look". There was so much beautiful work done graphically back in EQ. I want to carry it over here. But ... I.can.not.figure.it.out.

People have asked me when they are going to see my Ancient Celts ported over. Or any of the T.King stuff (since I have permission to work with his graphics). Well, here's why they aren't around.

There, shameful secret out.