"Where Can I RTFM?" and Other Dev Newb Questions

[Malignatus]

I'm new to WoW Addon dev and I can't seem to find a good starting point for learning the basics. I've got plenty of programming experience, so I'm not worried about picking up the language(s), but I'm having some difficulty with the documentation and development environment. :grin:

First, is there a way to load an addon from within the game? I tried /console reloadui without success. Will that at least reload an addon if I make modifications to it and don't want to restart the game? If not, is there a way to avoid restarting?

Second, are there any guides or reference material for using libraries like Enhanced Tooltips? The links I find for the homepage have been broken.

Third, are there any good tutorials out there? I found "Writing Your First AddOn" by Marian 'Fyrn' R, but I tried the provided zip file at the end and didn't see any such "hell clock" in the game. (And I enabled loading of out-of-date addons and my other out-of-date addons worked just fine.)

Finally, are there any good IRC channels with WoW AddOn developers hanging around? Something in FreeNode, maybe?

Thanks,
Malignatus

[Jumpy]

Good places to start ...

http://forums.worldofwarcraft.com/board.html?forumId=11114&sid=1
http://www.wowwiki.com/Interface_Customization
http://www.lua.org/pil/
http://fara.webeddie.com/frames/
http://lua-users.org/wiki/TutorialDirectory

[Sherkhan]

You cannot load a new Addon with /console reloadui - for that you have to exit the game and re-start.
But, the /console reloadui will bring in changes you make to existing files (if you add new files, then you need to re-start as well).