show/hide object from a hud?

I know this must be rediculously simple but scripting boggles me.

I wish to have a button on a hud that when pushed tells another object to either show or hide.

Any help or advice is appreciated.

You'll want probably a 'touch_start' handler in the script within your HUD (button). That will send a message on a non-zero channel telling the other object to show/hide itself. The show/hide object will start a listen with llListen() on that channel. Inside its 'listen' event handler it will possibly test which message it received before hiding/showing itself, probably with llSetLinkAlpha() or llSetLinkTexture(). See the following documentation pages:

http://www.lslwiki.net/lslwiki/wakka.php?wakka=touch_start
http://www.lslwiki.net/lslwiki/wakka.php?wakka=chat
http://www.lslwiki.net/lslwiki/wakka.php?wakka=llListen
http://www.lslwiki.net/lslwiki/wakka.php?wakka=listen
http://www.lslwiki.net/lslwiki/wakka.php?wakka=llSetLinkAlpha
http://www.lslwiki.net/lslwiki/wakka.php?wakka=llSetLinkTexture

Good luck, and be sure to post follow-ups when you have questions about specific pieces!

Hi thanks for the references.

This is what I have so far:

default
{
   touch_start(integer total_number)
    {
        llSay(69, "on");
    }
}

simple enough and it works! but only in one direction...lol. Based on this how would I go about getting the script to turn on when touched and off by the next touch?

The easy/lazy way would be to have two buttons on my hud...lol. But I know that isnt the answer.

Thank you again for your help!

simple integer switch:

integer on = 1;

default {
    touch_start(integer n) {
	    if(on)
		    llSay(69, "on");
	    else
		    llSay(69, "off");
	    on = !on;
    }
}

Explanation:
TRUE = 1 & FALSE = 0 in integers

So the if tests to see if on = TRUE
Whichever one it is, at the end you are changing on to it's opposite
FALSE becomes TRUE and vice versa everytime it is touched.

Two buttons would work. You could also keep a global variable that tracks the state of visibility the object is SUPPOSED to have (either currently or next), and send a message that is appropriate to that state. For example:

currentlyOn = !currentlyOn;
if (currentlyOn)
{
   llSay(69, "on");
} else
{
   llSay(69, "off");
}

EDIT: Oops. IOW what Jesse said. Don't cross the beams!

instead of sending 'on' in your llSay, say 'toggle', then configure your listener object to listen for 'toggle' and alternatively hide/show itself. Like this;

integer VISIBLE = true;

hide()
{
    //do hide stuff
   VISIBLE = false;
}

show()
{
   //do show stuff
   VISIBLE = true;
}
state default
{
    state_entry()
    {
        show();
    }
    listen(....)
    {
         if(msg == "toggle")
         {
               if(VISIBLE) hide();
               else show();
         {
    }
}

That's another great solution. That way you don't duplicate state data between the object and the HUD script, and the button will always work instead of occasionally missing a beat (e.g. if one chat message is missed, the next one will also be messed up; if the object has multiple controllers, they don't have to synchronize their states; etc.).

LMAO! This is the 3rd integer switch we have done in a few days for people. Guess I am going to have to get off of my butt one of these days and add it to the wiki touch_start entry. I do remember how miraculous it was when I first saw it and understood what was happening. I said bye bye that day to a lot of unnecessary state changes.

Hi to all who contributed!

I wanted to thank all of you for your help and support to my thread, the advice given not only answered my questions but taught me a bit about how this particular scripting works.

I am sure glad for the help. Prims and textures sing to me but scripts generally yell at me...hehe.

Thanks again
Cheewha

Just for fun, here is my take on it

//switch.lsl

integer on;
default
{
	touch_start(integer total_number)
	{
		llSay(-69, (string)(on = !on));
	}
}

//target.lsl

hide()
{
	//do hide stuff
	llOwnerSay("off");
}

show()
{
	//do show stuff
	llOwnerSay("on");

}

default
{
	state_entry()
	{
		llListen(-69,"switch","","");
	}
	listen(integer channel, string name, key id, string message)
	{
		if((integer)message)show();else hide();
	}
}

ooooooooo! Nice one Very!