Poster: Cairenn at 9/7/2005 6:43:20 AM PDT
Subject: The Definitive Macro & AddOn FAQ, v3 |
| |
Here are some of the most common FAQs ... feel free to add the FAQ (with answer, of course) that most annoys you in your reply, and I'll edit this post to include it. ;) Corrections and suggestions (both informational and grammatical) also welcome. ;)
Thanks go out to everyone who has made suggestions and comments; those who have provided additional FAQs for this post; those who have tirelessly and patiently answered all the n00bs' questions; and yes, even the n00bs themselves, for without their endless questions, this FAQ wouldn't exist. ;)
NOTE TO ALL POSTERS: Replies to this thread should only contain comments or suggestions about this FAQ, or should contain a new frequently-asked question with answer included! Please, DO NOT clutter up this thread with questions that you need answers to... that's why we have this entire forum.
Table of Contents
Section 1: "What the heck is all this, anyway?" (definitions and terms)
Section 2: "Patch Day, Oh Noes!" (what to do and NOT do on patch days)
Section 3: "So, you want to use some AddOns, eh?" (legality of / finding / installing / using AddOns)
Section 4: "Marco?" "Polo!" "I mean Macro!" (creating / using Macros)
Section 5: "I'm sorry Dave, I can't do that." (what is and isn't possible)
Section 6: "If at first you do not succeed..." (troubleshooting and debugging)
Section 7: "More! Give me more!" (other links and resources)
Section 8: "Extremely popular mods" (main sites for mods that are asked about allllll the time)
Section 9: "Other miscellaneous Info" (Where are my settings saved? How do I fix a layout problem? How do I move my Chat windows? Not enough memory?)
Section 10: "Still having problems!" (what to do and not do when posting a "please help" thread)
Section 1: "What the heck is all this, anyway?" (definitions and terms)
Q: No, really. What the heck are macros and addons?
A: (credit to Cairenn) Custom UIs, Macros and Scripts aren't precisely the same. They can work together, but you can also have one without having to have the other.
UIs:
A "UI", "AddOn" or "Mod" (the terms tend to be used interchangeably) is anything that provides "Modifications" or "Adds On to" the original base User Interface as supplied by Blizzard. The changes may be purely cosmetic (change the colour of the bars from the standard grey to florescent pink), may make it so you can change where or how things are displayed on the screen, may provide additional information or functionality, etc.
I really don't know much about macros & scripts (the focus of my site is Mods), so I tend to go to WoWWiki (http://www.WoWWiki.com) when looking for info on them. Therefore, quoting from their pages (with minor changes by the editor):
Macros:
Macros are series of commands designed to be executed in series.
A macro can consist of any number of /<command>s or pure text to up 255 characters. Users wishing to use more advanced commands are recommended to see the Interface Customization and World of Warcraft API sections at wowwiki.com.
Scripts:
Usually, not just in WoW, the term Script refers to a short to medium length program, written in some kind of simple programming language (called a scripting language). The purpose of a script is usually to control another program.
World of Warcraft has a powerful programming language called Lua embedded inside it, which is used for scripting. What this means is that WoW is able to understand and execute little programs written in the Lua language. However, in WoW, a script is usually not something that you use by itself, i.e. you don't just type in a script and execute it (although this is also possible). Instead, there are several places in WoW where you have the option to enter scripts as part of something else.
The kind of places that you can use a script:
/script [command] : If you type the slash command "/script" in the chat box, you can follow it with one or more valid Lua language statements (i.e. a script), separated by semi-colons (;).
Macros: you can enter scripts as part of macros, by putting one or more "/script" commands in your macro.
UI mods and AddOns: You can read more about these below, but the main point is that these are all created using Lua scripts (and also XML technology, but don't worry about that right now). In all the cases where you are able to use scripts, the things you can do with the scripts are the same.
So what can a script do? There are many resources on Lua scripts (the main one being http://www.wowwiki.com); However, the most important point is that scripts are able to perform many more game actions than slash commands. This is done via a set of functions (called API or Application Programming Interface) that WoW makes available for use in scripts. There is a quite extensive list of all the API functions available for use in scripts at http://www.wowwiki.com[ post edited by Cairenn ]
UI Dev, Hosting & Support
www.WoWInterface.com
| | | http://forums.worldofwarcraft.com/thread.aspx?fn=wow-interface-customization&t=211489&p=#post211489 | | | Poster: slouken at 9/18/2005 11:51:40 AM PDT
Subject: Re: The Definitive Macro & AddOn FAQ, v3 |
| |
I think it's better too, actually. :)
| | | http://forums.worldofwarcraft.com/thread.aspx?fn=wow-interface-customization&t=211489&p=#post222296 | Poster: slouken at 9/18/2005 11:51:40 AM PDT
Subject: Re: The Definitive Macro & AddOn FAQ, v3 *edited post* |
| |
I think it's better too, actually. :)
| | | http://forums.worldofwarcraft.com/thread.aspx?fn=wow-interface-customization&t=211489&p=#post222296 |
View all recent official Blue Posts
|
