Poll for NON scripters

Do you rarely or never play with LSL (scripting)?
If so, why not?
Check all that apply, and feel free to add comments.
Thanks in advance to all who reply


~Olympia

The only scripting I *ever* do is with particles, anything else and im freaking lost, its like looking at a language I do not speak...

Which technically, is exactly that...

I've done quite a bit of coding in a variety of languages, but there's just something about LSL that makes it very counterintuitive for me. Accomplishing even the simplest task requires so much trial and error that I rarely bother. I can't even get the freebie doors to work right.

Guess I should return my Hacker secret decoder ring.

I voted Not Interested. But not because I don't think scripting is interesting. I do IT work in RL, though my talents lay more with web design than programing. But I do manage the network where I work. I guess for me it would have been too much like my RL stuff. Plus, I wanted to learn a few things, but be able to turn to others for things I might need that I don't know how to make. It is no fun if I can do everything myself!

I think we know by now that I am a scripter, but I'm going to attempt a hijack to ask the following additional questions. I hope the author doesn't mind.

- How can we make scripting easier for you to understand, even if you don't care for it?

- What can we (the scripters) do to make your lives easier besides what's being done?

- Do you feel that a limited knowledge of scripting somehow "takes away" from your experience?

- If so, how would you like that resolved?

Please keep posts to these questions civil and earnest.

There are just too many things I need to learn in SL! I voted the "interested but not enough time" option. I've picked at a few (very) simple scripts, and I'm sure I could learn scripting if I took the time. However, I really like making textures, so that's mostly what I do. If I need something scripted, I'd mostly rather pay for it. I'm also not that great of a structures builder, so I'd mostly rather pay for that, too.

I admire those who can be SL generalists, or jacks-of-all-trades. At this point, I think I'd rather specialize. Who know, though, I might change my mind in the future.

1. How can you make scripts easier for me to understand? What can you do to make my life easier?

Over-Comment. Seperate logic blocks so I understand where & what they are. If you look at some of the freebie particle scripts out there - they're awesome as a teaching tool - because all a beginning user has to do is "uncomment" certain lines, and "comment" others to make it do what you want. Personally, I use "Jopsy's no-frills particle script".

2. Do you feel that a limited knowledge of scripting somehow "takes away" from your experience?

Absolutely not. In fact, it just makes me hungry to learn more. I just don't think a knowledge of scripting should be a *requirement* for folks to enjoy SL.

In SL - I'd consider myself a jack-of-all-trades, master of none. I can build, texture - and script... just enough to get by. Ask me to do a bang-up job on any one of those tasks, and I'll likely fail.

I voted that I want to learn, but that it's confusing to me.

To be honest, I think my problems consist of a) not knowing the syntax completely and b) having been unable thus far to attend a class.

I learn best by read and then "do." So, technically a class where the instructor is forced to explain via text should be great for me. LOL - unfortunately I haven't been able to attend one yet!

I would love to see class named "Scripting for Dummys" I have attended several of the classes and by the 3rd or 4th sentence that was said I was lost. I did find the best way is to hire someone to tutor one on one.

I hear states at a class, I think great I can learn this, after all I know all the states and capitals!!! Then the next sentence spoken cause me to cringe.... they arent talking about states at all!!

It just seems at scripting classes to much is assumed as to what the students know.

Code should be at least 75% documentation (within the code itself) and 25% actual code. It should probably be more but beggars cant be choosy.

I've dabbled and then set the script on fire out of frustration!

Writing a simple script, at least one hour.

Buying the same script from the gurus, L$100 - L$500.

Pure and simple time economics.

T

That's me as well!

Skriptin mak Red feel all stoopd an stuf. Mak hed all hurt. Mak Red mad!!

LMAO!!!!

I would love to learn scripting, but a) it doesn't seem like there's an easy to follow tutorial on how to do stuff, and b) it would take a lot of time to learn it.

I've modified a few things here and there, but I think I'd rather stay away from it ... it seems like I would "break" too many things ...

Not at all.
I should have included something like this myself.


When I first started tinkering with LSL, I was overwhelmed by all the concepts and rules. States? Events? Floats? Rotations? Keys? Operators? Functions? What the...?! I've learned by trial and error, tinkering with existing scripts, and the LSL Wiki .
I think additional "scripting for dummies" material would be helpful for people like me who came to to the world with no scripting experiance. Perhaps a library of highly annotated scripts demonstrating basic concepts would help. Ideally, these would be available in-world, at a central place. If this already exists, I'd be happy to contribute.
I've considered making some basic concept scripts myself, annotating them in ways that I would have found helpful back when I started, and making them available for free.


Limited scripting knowledge may keep creative residents from realizing their full potential*. I see oodles of wonderful objects and places, but most of them are inert. Not that everything in world should preform tricks, of course, but I think people would enjoy making more interactive items if they knew how.
[/b]
I'm more verbal than mathematical, and I'm sure there's other scripters like me. We're not experts, but we've learned LSL to a limited extent, so perhaps we can be a bridge between the pros and those who find scripting intimidating. I remember what stumped and confused me and can take it into account if I created any demo scripts aimed at people who find scripting intimidating.

*I hate the cliche "realizing one's full potential", but I'm low on caffiene and can't think of a more cool substitute.

Other: I'd rather be in some contest dancing at some club wearing some silly contest theme outfit. On the other hand, I'd probably prefer coding to playing tringo.

i'm not a coder by any means, but i have (many years ago) taken a C class and even built some interesting things in Visual Basic.

but for some reason I find LSL more challenging. It is very quirky, with new syntax, new rules for me (for example 0 is false and ANY number, not just 1, is true), things like vectors and quaternions, etc. I find that whenever I try to create a new script, even simplistic, I get very frustrated.

The biggest problem with all SL tools is the lack of deep documentation for those that actually want to read it, which many members of the user community valiantly try to compensate for.

The wiki can be a lifesaver, but would be so much better with more examples, especially around practical, common things that people try to build. Of course, how people will find the time to create this doc, I do not know.

I dabble in scripting, and find that the Linden functions frequently don't quite behave as I expect; other than that, I think it's fun.

Raise your hand if you ever accidentally crashed a sim....

I voted "want to learn, but confusing"

I'm not a stranger to scripting, but LSL just felt ... awkward. LSL and the LSL documentation have the look and feel of something from the deep mysterious abyss of computer science, deeply alien to the visual user-friendly world of Second Life. Perhaps if some of the programming concepts were better explained in the documentation?

Personally, I would very much have preferred a visual real-time scripting environment like MAX/MSP/Jitter, vvvv or EyesWeb. They look easy, they feel natural, and their real-time nature suits SL better than write-compile-execute LSL.

So if some scripter could script a 3D MAX/MSP-like visual interface to LSL, then /me would be very happy.
Except that such a complex tool would incur massive lag and the wrath of the entire gridverse, right?
Oh, never mind.

-nim

Just thought I'd throw my two cents worth in...

I script in LSL and find it all very straightforward, but then I learnt how to program using the C programming language and it is very similar to that in many respects. The one thing that I realised during those first few months of learning to program was that some people just don't think the way you need to in order to comprehend programming in general, that is not to say they are dumb, stupid or retarded; they just don't think the way they need to.

The thing I would like to see done by LL to make scripting much easier to get into for the average user is to create a "Wizard" style interface for creating common scripts. If anyone has ever seen the Blender 3D Game creation toolet, you will know what I mean. Basically each part of the creation of a script should consist of a bunch of dropdown lists to select options from. There is already an Insert Function dropdown list in the script editing window, why not simply expand on this to have a Dialog/Form for each of the relevant, or at least commonly used, functions. For example:

When the "llSay(integer channel_number, string text_to_say)" function is selected, a dialog/form would come up for the input of the channel number to use and the text to be said on that channel.

Once the scripter has set up user defined functions, variables and whatnot, they will be selectable (as well as predefined variables, constants and functions) in any relevant dialog/form input fields. For example:

If the scripter were to use the llSay() function, it would have extra field that can be activated (with the use of a checkbox) to include extra text or variables/functions that return a string formatted value, such as llDetectedName(integer key).

In a nutshell, the game needs a Scripting IDE that is at least as easy to use as the object building/editing tools.

I cant even script a prim door to open right.. its confusing i wish someone would help me!!!!!! LOL

i need a private scripter teacher

I'm a jack-of-all-trades type so maybe I have a biased view. But if you're not a scripting/programming type (and especially if you're not all that interested), isn't your time better spent doing what you ARE good at and simply teaming up with someone who compliments your skills? Of course, it has to be someone with the same kinds of interests you have, but I think this is one of SL's strengths--the way you can form a team and contribute parts to a project.

Learning EVERYTHING is time consuming, and you probably won't reach "guru" level in anything if you don't focus a little anyway.

It (scripting) doesn't appeal to me from a personal standpoint yet. I admire good scripts and have many friends who are accomplished scripters, however.

I'm leaving the door wide open on this one.