Offline Editors and MiceOnABeam

[Erwin Solo]

I was looking for an offline LSL editor because I want to make something similar to the Open Round Table scripts. I'm currently using the Open Round Table scripts, and while I think its a nice piece of work, there are a number of options I want to add. 

     http://code.google.com/p/falados-secondlife/source/browse/trunk/Projects/OpenRoundTable/?r=40

Quoting the script's description: "These are open source scripts that can turn any table/chair combination into a prim-saving chair-rezer that always has 1 seat available."

I want to add a menu with a manual mode in addition to the automatic mode.  Also, the current script uses multiple copies of only one chair.  I want to have variety by using a set of 12 mesh mushroom-stools I built as the "chairs".  I would rez mushroom-stool #1 through #12 and then start over with mushroom-stool #1 when I needed a thirteenth (13 th) chair.

Anyway, back to the offline script editor.  I studied

   http://wiki.secondlife.com/wiki/LSL_Alternate_Editors 

on the SL Wiki and I also studied a 2011 thread here on the forum:

   http://community.secondlife.com/t5/LSL-Scripting/Which-offline-editor-to-choose/td-p/1154817 

Of the choices for offline LSL editors, the only one that has been updated recently is MiceOnABeam. which has an updated offline script editor as well as a state-machine based graphical-user-interface design-mode with automatic script generation.  At first I thought that this was a lot more complex than what I needed, but the idea intrigues me. 

I was a Fortran programmer for mathematical problems a long time ago, but I'm mostly a hardware engineer.  I've done my share of Boolean logic design, and that uses a lot of state-machine design, and so I'm comfortable with the state-machine concept.  What I am not is a modern programmer.  My Fortran days were all about the math.  I never had to worry about making an nice user interface. 

That being said, I'm looking to do an intermediate script project, not start a new career; I already have a day job.  I'm wondering if anyone here has advice before I sink a lot of time into this.  Do I even want to bother with an offline script editor?  If I use an offline editor, what should I use? 

Thanks in advance, Erwin.

 

Postscript: If you want to see the Open Round Table Script in action, I have it rez'd in two places on my property on Da Boom SIM.  Just sit on the blue round-top mushroom inside the mesh dome or else on the blue round-top mushroom by the campfire on the beach.  Da Boom was the first SIM in SL, and is always a cool place to look around.  SURL: 

  http://maps.secondlife.com/secondlife/Da%20Boom/202/73/33

 

[Freya Mokusei]

I use Notepad++. The Syntax highlighting is a little tricky, but the definitions list can be updated manually with no hassle.

They're handy in the event of a high-speed unplanned logout event (crashing ) as they store the unsaved code even if the secondlife.exe process quits wholesale.

If you like maths you'll probably get along with LSL; complex UI's are nice but the language is only incidentally-designed to handle them (though this is easier since the addition of DetectedXY and MediaOnAPrim), the focus is still heavily on physics and mathematics.

Good luck (and congrats on your fancypants parcel)!

[Innula Zenovka]

Depends what you mean by "updated recently," but LSL Editor, which I use a lot, is pretty much up-to-date (last update March 14).

I use NotePad++ sometimes, too, but LSL Editor's automatic code completion and facilty to debug offline is very convenient.

[Darkie Minotaur]

I use lslforge since it best suites my most important requirements (or Eclipse does):

• Possibility to integrate SVN
• Support for different languages - especially PHP
• multi plattform (I work on Mac OS as well as on Win)

As far as LSL is concerned, it suppoert syntax highlighting, sysntax copletion and even off line debugging (which I've hardly used, though)

[Erwin Solo]

I had no idea that LSL Editor had been updated so recently.  The wiki ( http://wiki.secondlife.com/wiki/LSL_Alternate_Editors#LSL_Editor_Community_Edition ) makes it sound like it was last updated 29-April-2010.  I'll check it out.  Edit: I just now updated the wiki to say 2013-03-14. 

 

Anybody with experience with MiceOnABeam? 

[Innula Zenovka]

I've played around with MiceOnABeam a bit, but I am not sure I'm the intended market, since I tend not to make a lot of use of state changes anyway and, when I do, I'm used to doing it without the sort of assistance MiceOnABeam provides.    So I found learning the UI more trouble that it was worth.  

If I hadn't been used to writing LSL when MiceOnABeam was introduced, though, I might well have taken a different view -- I just don't know.

[Erwin Solo]

I just went through the tutorial, and I'm feeling the same way.  I like the state machine approach conceptually, but ... the state-management code is hard to read.  I think it would make a great LSL editor.  I just have to figure out how to bypass the GUI.

 

Update: I went ahead and got MiceOnABeam.  Why?  It is based on UML 2.0 (Unified Modeling Language, http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Unified_Modeling_Language ), which is something I'd been wanting to learn anyway for my day job.  This seems to be a powerful way to organize really complicated projects, and may be overkill for what I want to do in SL, but hey, it interests me and that's all that counts!

[Tausel]

Hi all

Just a quick thought.

I looked into offline editing and found this setup. I installed the Eclipse Developement platform and added the extra Java JDK to my runtime tools. Eclipse allows you to configure 'perspectives' including LSL specific plugins. This will allow you to not only edit, but with this you can compile, optimise, test and run all your scripting. Setting the software up is a little bit tricky, but all the answers are in the readme files and help sections within eclipse and the components archive.

Here are the LsL Plus Compiler components.

There are further tools within this development platform, specifically the Glasgow Haskell Compiler (GHC) version 6.10.1 or later. You can find all you need to know in the LSL Plus help section within eclipse.

It's then just a simple matter of cut 'n' paste your scripts in and out of SL. Simples.

I hope this is useful.

[steph Arnott]

I try it too, long time ago, harder to understand than actually learning LSL. I still can not understand it.

For the OP.

ADDED: I use the LSLEditor (2.55) off line and paste to SL when i got most of the bugs sorted, actualy my bugs are just bad scripting. The LL script editor is rubbish. But be aware the LSLEditor may at times compile and fail to compile in SL.

[Tausel]

Yes. Now that I've tried the eclipse interface I'm finding lots of niggles getting in the way of getting on with the actual work. I've yet to discover the method for editing the sim world variables as it doesn't seem to want to allow it. All I get is the raw world data in what looks like global declarations format. I'm spending more time setting the tool up then I previously hoped.

 

Has anyone any links or ideas to make this process easier?

 

P.s. I've also got Notepad++ with the lslplus syntax addon. It's really simple to configure, but it lacks the ability to compile and debug. The editor displays your scripts very nicely and makes it clearly understandable using colour coding. Very useful indeed. The links take you to all that is necessary to set it all up. Enjoy!