Hacking World of Warcraft (ExtremeTech) by Daniel Gilbert, James Whitehead II
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Book Reviews of Hacking World of Warcraft (ExtremeTech)
Book Review: NOT a book about writing add-ons
Summary: 3 Stars
Over half of this book lists and briefly describes add-ons that are available on the web. This may be a reasonable introduction for players who have never used add-ons, but it's no substitute for web sites like ui(dot)worldofwar(dot)net that have more content that's organized better and is more up-to-date. Still, there are those who won't know what to look for and a catalog like this one may be what they need to see what they're missing.
The section on writing macros is a good way to get started and it's fairly up-to-date (for now). This section is why the book rates 3 stars and not 2.
The section on writing add-ons takes up about a third of the book and is an unqualified disaster and a meaningless sacrifice of innocent trees. It goes on at length to haphazardly say almost nothing and is littered with advice like "if you want to do X, download an add-on that already does X and read its source code." Thanks, bub. Glad I paid $20 for that gem.
The good news for prospective authors is that the niche of "How to Write World of Warcraft Add-Ons" books is still vacant and ready to be exploited. A reasonable book on that topic would include well-written tutorials and clear sample add-ons that cover, even if only superficially, the many things a player may want to do. It would also include a well-organized reference for the APIs (both lua and GUI), along with short snippets illustrating the use of each function. Such a book, if it existed, would undoubtedly sell very well.
Book Review: good...but bad
Summary: 3 Stars
The book's good at what it is tryign to do, but that thing is useless.
play for a month and it will all come together, this is a waste of money
and if you cant install an addon, just ask someone in your guild or something..its the easiest thing to do.
if you dont know...
find the addon you want download it, and click open [not save] on the pop up window. when it opens a screen with the addon file[s] you need to open my computer, then open drive C, then open program files, then open 'Wolrd of Warcraft' files, then open the interface folder. your should see an 'add ons' folder in the interface folder, simply go to the window with the addon files, hold down Ctrl [control] and left click each of the files in the folder. when they are are highlighted, drag them into the addons folder.
when you launch WoW make sure the addon is checked in the addons list [where your character selection screen is] from there you can enable/disable an addon if you decide you dont like it.
if you have lots of extra $$ then go for it, i'd just learn from playing
Book Review: Geared at those Starting out and basic commands
Summary: 3 Stars
I bought this book and two others to create a couple of interfaces for things I do often.
This book referenced many of the existing add-on applications, and some basic calls. I could have used this info a year ago when I started, but I had already pass beyond this info with stuff from some of the sites listed here. Also two of the links I tried had already either changed or gone dark, so my take is the printed reference does have a time-line.
I did find it well written, and organized, and had I seen this a year ago it would have been ideal.
Book Review: Hackers anonymous
Summary: 3 Stars
This is a good book if you are into writing programs. There are some useful websites in this book and they tell Wow gamers places the enhance there online gaming. If you want to make up your own gaming with a UI, or another helping add-on then this is the book for you. It shows you how to do it and where to put it. Since I am not a geek, this helped me only to find the addon sites from other folks which helped me greatly.Book Review: Example Addons *Do* Work
Summary: 3 Stars
It's a good overall view of some of the basic addons for those of us who sit in front of the computer enough playing Wow and don't want to sit in front of the computer reading about addons. (:
I did have a problem getting the first addon to work; then I realized from reading this site that I had to enable script errors -- the message pops up as a script error.