Authors CurseForge

Hi im looking at devloping my own mod (aimed for those who are fed up of ninjas and other pests) and looking where to start seems a bit.... in ya face, im looking for some advice on devlopment tools and simler points to start with it might get the response rtfm or search but nothing like asking directly.

Thanks in advance

Depends on what you need... Most senior devs here recommand that you start with something simple and don't use any framework whatsoever for your first add-on, it gives you a sense of the WoW API and lua syntax.

As for development tools per se, you don't need any IDE, any decent dev-oriented text editor is all you need (PSPad, Notepad++ etc...) You can find lua syntax highlighting plugins for most of them.

However, as you put it, the beginning of addon coding may seem a bit overwhelming, personnally I began my lua coding through a plugin of an existing addon (Grid), simply because the plugin was what I needed and I like my learning to be project-oriented.
If you need :
- simple configuration frame / chat command
- data retention
- event registering
Then by all means use Ace2 / Ace3 (wouldn't recommend Rock as its driving developper is MIA from what I understand). There is a very good "your first Ace3 add-on" wiki in the Framework / Ace3 section that will allow you entry-level knowledge of Ace3 for example.

As for references :
- WoWWiki for WoW API / UI Widgets reference
- Wowace wiki for libraries and framework API documentation. Beware : some of those docs might be considered very light / incomplete (this is volunteer work, and doc writing has never been fun :P )
- Other addons to get ideas from. Keep in mind that what you're trying to do has either been done in some fashion before or may not be possible considering the limitations of WoW API.

My idea is to hopefully keep track of the numptys which seem to make instacnes a pain, my plan is to have a mod that has a "black list" feature that allows a player to be added with a reason on it, in the event of a player on the black list joining your group it presents a pop up with a reason why they was added (i.e date time instance and actions they took) hopefully then if your pl you can take a few actions one click something along the lines of "let them be" so it gives them a chance remove this if your pl will remove the offending player from the group and send them a whisper with the reason (taken from the black lists data) and then 3rdly intercepts all whispers from that player and replys back with a preset response. Doable with regards to api limitations?

Seems pretty doable to me...
Although going to this level of automation for such a petty problem... *shrug*

Petty? i think not :) the idea being is to save people myself mainly time, how often have u had someone join a instance run round till the 1st boss it drops there item and vanishs, a nugget whos gone on a needing spree. Im trying to turn something like that into something productive and im sure theres a lot more mods out there that involve a lot more automation for some very silly things

Thanks for the info, im guessing theres no Gui builder to edit in game and see the out put there and then im not expecting drag and drop but idealy be nice not to have to write everything from scracth (not when im dyslexic)

Quote from Wulfy »

how often have u had someone join a instance run round till the 1st boss it drops there item and vanishs, a nugget whos gone on a needing spree.

Never, but I rarely do pugs...

im guessing theres no Gui builder to edit in game and see the out put there and then

Nope, but with some frameworks you may have commands like /dump, /rl which save time. I found the quickest way to actually code and test was to deactivate all addons on your toon except the one you're working on to save on loading time (and possibly buggrabber / bugsack)

I agree with what Mokhtar said. I'd just add that once you have dug through the wowwiki howtos (http://www.wowwiki.com/Category:HOWTOs) I'd recommend looking at addons that do something close to what you want to do and try to understand it. For example you could pick up Karma, which admittedly is rather big, but tracks people you quested and instanced with. You'll be able to learn how to get at the relevant information.

Found karma yesterday will be looking into how that works, with regards to running no mods, already planned on starting "clean" and then introduce my work to other mods one at a time to see if there was any conflicts anyone got any thoughts on the wow mod builder tool ive seen in another post on here? worth looking into?

Consensus is those tools are outdated / not worth the hassle.