you guys are awesome!, really helped me out
how did you guys learn mirc scripting? played with it? any good tutorials or sites?
i only know of here and
www.mircscripts.org I learned by doing it. Back in 2001, I started running TrivBot 2000 and after not very long, I realized that I wanted it to do more than it did. So, I started looking at the scripting and tried to figure out how to make it do what I wanted. Now our trivia bot is more advanced than any other trivia bot I've ever seen and it has around 10,000 questions specifically about old (classic) games for PC, console, and handheld. Of course, I have a lot of prior programming knowledge, so the scripting language isn't really that hard to figure out (or at least get a general idea of what is happening) with that prior knowledge.
I was on Dalnet at the time and it had 2 good #scripting channels... #scripthelp and #scripting, or something like that. I have no idea if those are the correct names or if they are still around. Anyhow, I always went there to ask questions.
As I got more involved with scripting, I started looking at other peoples' scripts to see how they worked. Combining that with mIRC's help file and this forum and the scripting channels, I have been able to figure out what I wanted to do without too much difficulty.
The real trick is this...
1) You need to really *want* to learn it. Otherwise, you won't put in enough effort and it will just be a waste of your time to try.
2) You need to script regularly (or at least play around with scripts, even if you're not writing new ones). When learning any language (computer or human), you learn through use. If you rarely use it, you won't succeed. I would love to relearn C++ (I haven't used it in so long that I forgot most of it), but I don't really have any need for writing programs in it, so learning it isn't really possible --- without needing to use it, I have no incentive to learn it and I don't get enough practice using it. With mIRC, I use it almost every day, so I'm always finding things that I can script or improve or change in scripts, so I have plenty of practice.
3) Learn to use the help file. Many people complain about it because it really isn't all that user friendly. However, it is a GREAT source of information if you know how to use it properly so that you can find what you are looking for.
4) Get some simple scripts from mircscripts.org and see how they do what they do. See if you can edit them to do something else. Start with simple things like on TEXT triggers. Try something like having the script send a message to anyone who says hello. As you progress, you can pick up more difficult scripts... but if you try to skip the easy scripts because you think they are "kid stuff", then you'll never really get very far.
5) Once you have a handle on the easier scripting skills, start paying attention to what people here are writing. Don't start answering scripting questions unless you're sure you know how to do it, but just read the answers others give. If the question is about sockets, for example, and you think you want to try to learn how to use sockets, then look at how the script in the answer looks and try to see how it works. Then start looking at other socket answers in the forum to see similarities. Try changing some things to see if you can make it do something different. Eventually, you can try writing your own. Keep in mind that sockets is advanced and I just used it as an example. The idea is that you see how people do something and then try to make it work for yourself.
6) Ask questions!! However, if you are learning to script, don't just ask if someone can write a script for you. Even just saying, "How can I make a script do ____?" will usually get you a script for an answer. That isn't what you want. Instead, ask the question, but include what you've already tried to create. And make sure to point out that you are trying to learn to do it yourself so that, hopefully, you'll get a good explanation on how to do it.
