in-game LSL guide!

OK. I'm handing this one off to someone else because it's a lot of work I don't have time to do. But here's how it'd work. The following routine can do a 'search' for a notecard in an inventory:

integer FoundInventory(string str)
{	key ZERO_KEY="00000000-0000-0000-0000-000000000000";
	integer found=FALSE;
	key a=llGetInventoryKey(name);
	if (a!=ZERO_KEY) {found=TRUE};
	return found;}

So why's this sneaky business with keys important? The user makes a request for an object by name, and we don't have to code possible responses into the script! Plus we easily recover if the response is unaccounted for. We simply search by input for a notecard:

string a=llToLower(user_input);
if (FoundInventory(a))
{	llGiveInventory(user_id,a);)
else
{	// couldn't find 'file'
}

We slip in notecards (before or during run-time) with lower-case titles and containing info on the library calls (plus maybe an advertisement or sample script or link to another library call?) So the end product is that the user inputs "llACOS" and gets back a notecard about the llAcos library call. This has been the closest I can get to a menu-type system. Anyone up to creating a better-documented and in-game LSL guide with examples of each call?

Quick survey: how much demand is there for an in-game LSL guide?

I run SL in windowed mode, and I find it easy to ALT-TAB over to the help file. To me it's a small price to pay for the tree-view table of contents and the other navigational aids that the help file offers. So I'm wondering: how much functionality would you trade for being able to view the contents in-game?

I ask because there *is* potentially a way to integrate the LSL help into the in-game help viewer, which currently is used only for "Basic Help." The in-game help viewer is displaying HTML files that are installed with the SL client. I could port the contents of the LSL help file into straight HTML files, which you could copy into the appropriate directory on your hard disk, and then you could view them from the "Basic Help" menu item.

The problem is that, currently, the in-game help viewer handles only a tiny subset of HTML tags (I've checked). Most importantly, it doesn't support the tag for preformatted text, which is needed to make code samples readable. If the Lindens added support for that tag, in-game help becomes viable.

Personally, I'd prefer more actual content; there are a few hundred questions about LSL that I'd like the Lindens to answer. Because right now, the help file's descriptions of many library calls is no more extensive than the tooltip help you get when your mouse hovers over a function name, and obviously that's available in-game right now. Handy, but it's not a substitute for real documentation.

How do other people feel about this?

I suppose it isn't the in-game guide I want so much as two things:

(1) A better source than the web page, which is lacking in explanations and examples, and vague, even confusing, in many spots.

(2) Something that can be accessed in-game, because the only way to copy down an unfamiliar library call is to hold your mouse over it, type what you can remember, hold the mouse over the word, do it again, etc. That gets annoying.

Regardless of what format it's in, I'd like to see some work going in to making the guide understandable to newbies.

I agree. The help is not very user friendly. I too would like to see an ingame and more comprehensive script help.

I would like to see in addition to the drop down list in the script window, either an example that shows when you mouse over or it pops in the script when you click it with example line of code. Instead of just the call.

YES I heartily agree, Charlie! This is exactly what I have been asking for. I think it would help both beginning and advanced scripters alike!