Hi Again, I’m just a posting fool tonight. Don’t worry I’ll probably peter out soon and get some sleep. This time I’d like to give you some pointers (memory speaking) to tools that made working in Second Life easier in one case and completely frustrating but cool in another.
First, the uplifting tool….
LSLEditor -If you have ever done any real programming in your life, you know about 2 seconds into scripting directly in SL that this isn’t any kind of IDE for building code. I had more fun back when I used VI on an old AIX box we did our COBOL on /*side note, I’m not actually old enough to have “worked” in COBOL, I just took 2 semesters in it during my undergrad years*/. Your ability in SL to completely screw yourself over with the built in scripting tool is amazing. I finally found this little baby doing some searching on the wikis. Between this and using a little subversion source control, I felt like i was really programming.
Key Features for me:
- freakin auto-complete – including method parameters.
- Syntax highlighting
- Actually being able to run the code and Debug
- you don’t have to have SL running (standing around slumped over while coding is annoying.
Its got some minor eccentricities… but so does Visual Studio. Definitely if you are used to VS I’d try this little gem out and see what you think.
-*/-*/-*/-*/-*/
The bain of my Existence –
BLENDER – Blender has me as excited as a virgin on prom night, but just like that virgin, when i get my hands on it, i barely know what to do with it. I get the whole 3d modeling thing is tricky bit. and I’ve trialled a few of blenders relatives, and blender is very easy to use. I guess the real problem is, I’m an make it do stuff programmer and not a make it pretty programmer. writting the code to do the Communication with our technologies outside SL and all that was easy. Making the model of the object we’d use was tricky. (and to be honest i did just use the built in tools for that work) My models fall into 2 categories: Happy Accidents (ala Bob Ross), or relatively simple. I’ve got a wacom tablet, pen, and blender. Now all I need are a few thousand hours of practice and experimenting and a transfusion of artistic skill… oh well, its still a great tool and once I get it figured out, I’ll pass on those tips and tricks as well.
CU in SL.
- John – Giggy Karu in Second Life
