AddOn Studio for World of Warcraft documentation: Difference between revisions

Documentation for AddOn Studio for WoW is added as time permits. Is intended to provide filler information for those who like to read more, or anyone who doesn't necessarily have a lot of experience with Visual Studio, or in some of these other areas.

== Other sources ==

With AddOn Studio for World of Warcraft, it be deceptively easy to get started and see your first AddOn running in WoW within in minutes, even with no real experience. However the complexities inherent in game development when combined with a modern fully-featured IDE like AddOn Studio, can be complex and can often seem overwhelming.

An "IDE" is an Integrated Development Environment, where lots of tools and facilities are clustered together in one application in an attempt to make things more convenient, to save time, and help you focus more on what you are really trying to do, so the theory goes...  Many times however this doesn't actually happen. The complexities of mastering the development environment can be a daunting task in itself, in addition to everything else.

With all this in mind, I'm going to do my rendition of "breaking things down" for how to get started with WoW AddOn development and AddOn Studio, especially for those who aren't already "hobbyists" or professional programmers and might be just starting out, or were just curious.

Instructions on [[AddOn Studio 2010 for WoW]] or [[AddOn Studio 2015 for WoW]] pages cover all the essential steps. It's essentially copying the folder in the zip, and then running the executable. From there you can create a new WoW AddOn project, click 'build' to deploy to WoW, and then '/reload' in WoW to see it.  

# Install Visual Studio or Isolated Shell using the links provided. Just click and run, and follow the instructions. Should go smoothly.

# Click "open" from the browser, to open the zip or 7z file.

# Right-click the running application in the task bar, and click "Pin to task bar" to make a shortcut.