light with control?

i have been struggling with trying to make a color changing light with
a
button for several days now, and little and no luck.
I tried finding a vending machine for the button..didn't find one, looked at severaly elevators i have, that didn't help either...even looked at a door and lock, but the script wasn't viewable... i don't know much about scripts...but have edited several to fit my needs in objects. so i know a little =) i bought a color changing script and
tried to edit and use the basic hello avitar script so that it might
work on the light by typing (llsay /1 light color) but no luck with that either.
am i going about this all wrong and need knowlege with strings for
this? i have no clue now as how to make my lights work..help please...

buttons are touch events in the hello world you would put your functions (what the script is suposta do) after touch start and between the {}

/# command are done with the listen event, you first have to tell the script to listen with llListen(); then later on you can define whats gonna happen when someone says something.
Most of it is what channel its on /99 for example and some if else clauses to respond to commands you setup

listen(integer channel, string name, key id, string message)
{
if (message == go)
{
llDoStuff(flags,data,ect);
}
else if (name == llGetOwner())
{
llDoOtherStuff(data,range,ect)
}
}

llDialog is probally what your looking for, it brings up a little blue box in the upper right hand of the UI with different options on upto 12 buttons

It relies on the listen event, all it does is give a clean pushbutton ui, so instead of saying /495 blue you click the button labeled blue and it will say /495 blue for the user

you would setup a listen like normal and the listen event for your uses, use touch start or something to get the users UUID and start the dialog with them

Welcome to the forums!

IM me in world sometime so we can talk about what you actually want and I'll happily talk you through it no one else will sooner - it's 1:50 am here and I'm off to bed.

The wiki http://secondlife.com/badgeo/wakka.php?wakka=HomePage is also your friend potentially - look at the communications and textures sets.