What are my options for client-side scripting?

[Sara Nova]

I have a complex network of personal scripts that I've built up over the years, which I use to control all my attachments. Central to all of them is a system I call "Switchboard", whose primary function is to keep track of global variables and do things with them, like insert them into strings and output them on chat channels.

I'd love to reimplement this as a client-side program of some sort; that way everything should run faster, without any risk of causing lag, and I'd also have orders of magnitude more memory available for storing code and variables.

My question is, what would be the best way to do this? All I really need in terms of functionality for interfacing with SL is a way to process incoming llOwnerSay messages, and send output on chat channels. (Custom GUI panels for replacing HUD's would be a nice extra.) I know that if nothing else, I could figure out how to compile and run it as part of a custom-built viewer, probably by embedding Python or something in there. But is there a simpler way?

[Ansariel Hiller]

Use a viewer with client-side automation script support via LUA, e.g. CoolVL.

[Sara Nova]

1 hour ago, Ansariel Hiller said:

Use a viewer with client-side automation script support via LUA, e.g. CoolVL.

Wait, that's a thing? I looked for something like that but didn't find it—thanks!

I currently use Firestorm, and there's some features that I simply can't give up—mainly the LSL preprocessor. Pretty much all my scripts are written for it; it's indispensable. I did some research and it does look like CoolVL supports this feature, but it says macro expansion isn't supported. I don't think that will be too difficult to work around, but hopefully it won't have any more troublesome incompatibilities with Firestorm's preprocessor.

Thanks again

Of course, if anyone has any other ideas, feel free to suggest them, just in case CoolVL doesn't work for my needs or those of whoever else sees this thread in the future.

Edited February 16, 2020 by MyAlt4099

[Sara Nova]

Okay, so there's three things I'd like to have (which Firestorm has) that I can't find:

• An option to #include from local filesystem by default without having to add a #pragma line to all my scripts Added by editing HBPreprocessor::clear() method
• The preprocessor feature that removes unused functions from the code.
• An option to make double-clicking something in the inventory attach it via "add" without detaching anything
• Some way of seeing the number of the current face that's selected when editing a prim http://sldev.free.fr/forum/viewtopic.php?f=6&t=2001
• An option where manually moving the camera locks its angle until you press Esc, additionally locking its position if you alt-clicked something other than your avatar. (I think in Firestorm it's called something like "Reset camera on move", which I'd uncheck to get the behavior I want)

Anyone familiar with CoolVL know if any of those options exist? I'd ask on their forum but when I tried to create my account, it said I needed to click a link in an activation email which I still haven't received, and I don't see anywhere to contact the staff (as it says to do) that doesn't require me to be logged in.

While I haven't tried the Lua scripting yet, it looks like it does have everything I need and then some. Thanks again for the tip

Edited February 16, 2020 by MyAlt4099