Originally Posted by haylie
From my experience, learning something works best when you have a strong incentive to do so. For me, it was the fact that my computer was extremely old and could barely run WoW. A friends suggested I dump heavy CPU addons and I ended up trying Alza's UI back when it first came out. His layouts were simple, very well explained and easy to modify, so I understood the basics quite quickly. The first thing I ever modified was sFilter, to make it track my important hunter buffs and debuffs.
I can honestly tell you that there is no need to read books and take classes if all you need to do is modify a few layouts. Practice is the best way to learn. I took oUF layouts and started changing stuff, and when things didn't turn out the way I wanted I just used a different layout. Eventually I added, changed and removed so much stuff that the end result could barely be considered the original author's layout. Same for minimap, chat, aura trackers... my whole UI was a Frankenstein-esque mass of pieces of code from all over the place.
What did help me immensely was Notepad++ and a reload macro handy. Another important thing was using addons that were simple to modify and well explained. Besides Alza, I also learned a LOT about frames and fonts from using LitePanels, another great and well explained addon. Lastly, if you do want to write your own, a minimap addon is very easy to write, IMO.
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I mainly want the books as a reference material, something to look through. Also, taking classes might help me out later getting a job (tech savvy people are always wanted).
I was actually starting to think about writing one as well, as I was skimming through people's core files, it seemed pretty easy to me and wanted to try it. I might actually go download litepanels, try to stay away from KGPanels for a bit.