Simplish Guild Roster Replacement

[venoabyss]

I'm just learning LUA but have been progamming for many years in C and VB, however I find myself getting agrivated with the default guild frame, after spending the last week trying to find a addon that had what I needed and failing I decided it was time to learn lua and give it a shot.

Basicly I want to rewrite the entire guild roster page so at a glance I can see all the basic information currently provided in the (6ish) tabs of the guild roster.

Example:

Guild name (xp bar on right)
Roster
85 LeaderName 25k/25.1M Guild Leader Herb(525) | Mine (525)
...
...
...

Rep <--------------------------------> [Info button (for a second page)]

and use the guild tabard icon thingy as a transparent background for the whole thing (if it looks good)

I realize this is jumping right into the fire, and V1 will probably have virtually no options just a display but I think given a little time it could be a fun project.

However I haven't found a LUA or XML editor to make the transition easier, I'm used to using Visual C++ or VB Studio Suite, is there a lua/xml tool that approximates that type of environment that I should look into?

Also look forward to feedback on any libraries I might need to include to make this work.

Thanks in advance,
V

Ps I've been trying the list of programs listed in the tutorials and helpful info but most of the links seem to be down