dev noob with an idea. where to start ?

[coz752]

k. it's fairly simple. I've got an idea for a nice addon. I'm in the initial fase of knowing what some of the features I would like the thing to do and it's going to require some chatter between different client's to work succesfully. Personally I have a very basic programming knowledge. Give me some time and i might be able to do a /hello world.lua .If you know what i mean. but right now i wouldn't even know where to begin to make a complete stand alone addon.

So basically yes, preferably I would like to seek some guidance, direction. tip's. heck, maybe even a bored dev or two that jump up and say 'awesome, I could help you out with that'.

Whats a good way to start making an addon? I'd rather make it all on my own and take all the glory and credit and donations and sure there are some great guides i've already spotted and I should brush up on my programming skills regardles,I know. I don't really have the resources to hire someone or anything but teaming up sounds great to me.In fact, anyone that is willing to help will of course get a lot of credit and I'm humble enough to let you in on any potential donations it might receive.

Right now i'll go ahead and start working on that hello world.

[Katae]

Look at simple addons that you use and re-engineer them. Also, Blizzard's Interface Addons Kit is another good way to get started.

[coz752]

oe. cheers, will check it.
I know its a bit selfish point of view maybe, and i don't mean to be too demanding on anyone. I don't mind building it from scratch up you know, but i know my coding skill is severely crap.

I know nobody of you either has a magic button that makes addon's. hehe. but i don't want to reinvent the wheel myself either.

also. i fear what will happen when i do actually manage to create some sort of framework and get to the chatter part. ;p

[Xrystal]

After playing around with xml and lua coding for addons I decided to go through the pure lua route and things have turned out pretty well there.

I use wowwiki alot and as has been said, I looked at addons I was using and tried to tweak them to do what I want. Then I tried to take out bits and pieces to make up my own addon to do the stuff I wanted leaving the stuff I didn't want out of it.

My LootAlerter addon is a good example of my learning experience as each upload had an improvement of some sort or other as I learned more and more about creating addons and programming in lua.

Feel free to browse around it and see if it helps you. I'd suggest starting with version 1.0.0 and go from there comparing the versions to see what was added to make the new changes work. It's by no means perfect but the features it has now are way more than what it had in the early versions.

[coz752]

I think you all underestimate the part where I say my coding is crap
but i dont want to give up too quick and give the full idea to someone because of it's potential. So i'm a bit stuck in the middle.

I did check out the examples a bit better. But there is a long way between an idea plus a hello world example and something working and usefull.

anyway, cheers so far.


Bottom line, on one part I don't mind throwing the idea into the community, let some dev take it over and download it later on when its done ;p

But it's not that simple. ofc i don't expect to make loads of profit for making an addon in general, and i'm not fantasizing that i'll be rich if i make a perfect addon. and im not worried ill miss out on loads and loads of cash if i take on a partner.

Thing is. I know my coding skill is virtually non existent. Do you think, in general, this site can be used to set up a project and have multiple dev's working on something and still 'own' the idea as intellectual property while still being able to reward people on their commitment and dedication,even when there is currently no budget whatsoever ?

or if it were the other way. suppose you have an idea. and you realize in the grand way you envision it it's beyond just helpful and something you want to use for yourself but you think it can be part of something bigger, potentially lucrative. but you realize you are not capable of creating the framework in which this all takes place. How would you go about finding people that can help

[Xrystal]

Rofl before wow addons I had no idea how to use xml and lua coding. So it was like learning a new language. Programming background helps but you should pick up the basic knowledge pretty quickly enough.