Request: Devs, what programs do you use to create the mods?

[BWDemor]

I ‘m looking for any info on actually creating the mods themselves. Maybe I do not understand it correctly or not, but the LUA link Blizzard has is just the compiler for the .LUA files. If I’m wrong then I need to try and understand it better. But if that is just the compiler, then what program are the developers of the mods using? I have been viewing and trying to understand the mods through Notepad, but I know there are better ways to understand and learn from it then from Notepad. Is there a certain program people are using to write the code itself?

Any tips and help would be grateful.

Thanks,
BW

[Karmond]

I use notepad... but I learnt alot from http://www.wowwiki.com/ Check out the API they have there.

[Xinhuan]

I use Notepad too.

[krka]

I run linux and play the game with Cedega.

For making mods I use emacs as an editor, with lua syntax highlighting.
I use a lua compiler to check for syntax errors before trying reload the ui in WoW ("apt-get install lua50", then "luac -p *.lua").
I have a firefox open with documentation from wowwiki.
For the occasional graphics I use gimp.

There's no way I'd do a mod in notepad, I need to have automatic indentation and syntax colouring and stuff.

[Yrys]

I use Vim (http://www.vim.org/). It's perhaps not the most user-friendly interface, but it does syntax highlighting for Lua and works great for programming.

[Scheid]

I am using PSPad. http://www.pspad.com/
It's a freeware with LUA highlighting. It works great.

[valyqrah]

UltraEdit is nice, much nicer than using notepad ppl! :) at least you can tab/shift-tab multiple lines...

www.ultraedit.com

[ClemSnide]

Notepad. It's already installed and you can set a default typeface/size. That's important because I'm visually impaired and the default in WordPad is impossible to change. NotePad is not as hard to use for coding as some people think. Sure, nothing's automatic, but I have enough experience to do indentation more or less automatically anyway. And syntax coloring leaves me with a headache; to me it's a malfeature.

I'm a refugee from the Mac world, though, and if I was still writing on that platform I'd use BBEdit without question. I wish to heaven it was available under Windows. Its primary feature is that its feature set is well thought out, and doesn't get in your way. ...Actually, once I get a better networking setup (no dubt during the Trenton ComputerFest), I may edit on the OS 8.6 Mac that's sitting next to me and play on the Windows box. (My $400 whitebox outperforms my $2000 dual processor Quicksilver on certain tasks, at lesat under OSX; OS9 works well but only uses one processor. Sad, but at least I know what system to buy the next time I go shopping.)

Graphics: Again, I like the pre-OSX Mac editors, mostly because I have experience in them, partuially because they try not ti interfere with your work. I do have something called The Gimp which I use to look at TGA files, and XnView, which is the only freeware I've found that handles BLP files. But the former sometimes goes into crazy modes where you paste part of a graphics into another and it becomes invisible. I'm sure it's the pride of some Unix jockey, but it's not for real people. Give me GraphicConvertor any old day.

I am an experienced programmer, going back to assembly language in 1979. My favorite programming environment is the Newton Toolkit; gad how I miss that little wonder! I am, however, a relative newbie when it comes to XML and Lua programming (though frankly anyone who's done HTML and structured BASIC should have little trouble), so take my advice with the appropriate amount of salt.

[Jumpy]

I use MetaPad, it's free. http://www.liquidninja.com/metapad/

[ClemSnide]

In the past day or so I've found a way to get good edge graphics. I'm writing a little tutorial on it. In the meantime, the tools are

The GIMP (http://www.gimp.org/windows/)

[Tunga]

Notepad++ is another decent basic code editor with a few nice features, though I think I was using VIM for the VRML code we did at Uni and that seemed decent.

[bigzero]

I use Notepad++ as well and love it. The only problem is its messed up Regular Expressions.

[Tunga]

This thread lost a bunch of replies as well, did the database crash or something? The OP came back and said that he picked up NP++ and loved it for its simple additions (like line numbers) without ever getting it the way.

[ClemSnide]

I think the power failure, addition of servers, or whatever did mess things up. I wasn't the OP, and the link I had posted to PNG2BLP disappeared.

[SpitfireToTheMax]

Question: How do I use these programs to make a mod?
(I'm new to making mods, trying to figure it out)

[Tunga]

Do you have any other coding experience? Mods are written in XML and Lua, both of which are quite easy to pick up if you're familiar with programming in general. The API can be found on WoWWiki:
http://www.wowwiki.com/World_of_Warcraft_API