Thread: Trying to Learn
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06-28-19, 12:32 AM   #11
Lybrial
A Flamescale Wyrmkin
AddOn Compiler - Click to view compilations
Join Date: Jan 2010
Posts: 120
I started coding WOW AddOns myself only a couple of weeks ago so maybe it is worth it when
I give you my opinion on that.

First: Im a senior software engineer in real life running my own software company, so Im
pretty experienced in that area. I can tell you: The language does not matter. The
language is just a Tool. Lua maybe does not seem to be the best language in the world
but it does not need to be. Every language has its advantages and disadvantages. Also
the lua language itself is very well documented, so you wont get any problem with lua.

Second: A little bit different is it when it gets down to the WOW API. I agree... the
documentation of the WOW API is horrible compared to how documentations usually
look like. Personally I would never release an API so badly documented like the WOW
API is, especially not when Im a company as big as Blizzard.

So what we all need is the WOW community. But if you think of it, there arent that many
people on the world who are interested in coding stuff for WOW. That is why you wont find
many resources of examples on how to do specific things with the WOW API. You will
find basic stuff for sure though.

What I liked to do was to download AddOns of other developers and look into their code
to see how they solved problems. Since this is mostly undocumented / without comments
its sometimes hard to understand but if you dive into it and give it some time you will
understand it, adapt it and find your own solutions.

Otherwise I can recommend to ask ask ask ask. Just yesterday I was on the WeakAuras
Discord and I asked a question to solve a specific thing with lua in WeakAuras. They
explained it to me and they had a really hard time with me because It took me very
long to understand what they were telling me. They let me know that they were quite
annoyed that I did not understand very quickly but after some chatting they were able
to provide a simple and easy to understand example. Ofcourse you need to stay friendly

Btw here at wowinterface I already got a lot of qualified answers to my questions which
were helping me alot.

So... It is not easy to come up with something great when you just began with WOW coding.
But with the time comes the skill and the fun!
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