I wanted to make a short announcement that I am developing a "how to" guide for writing plug-ins for PoG even though it isn't completed yet(heck, I just started, hehe). It is my goal to create this guide in such a way to show everyone that writing a plug-in really isn't very difficult to do, and for those who might have some ideas about things they would like to see I would like to give them the necessary means to act on those ideas.

I plan on making 4 things available with this project:

1. A how-to guide which gives an outline of how to write a plug-in, including an analysis of each of the creation menus and editors.
2. A sample plug-in that displays basic plug-in creation.
3. The source code for the above plug-in for use in referencing the "how was that done?" questions.
4. A tutorial that gives step-by-step instructions on how to create the sample plug-in, thus allowing tentative or leery future plug-in designers a chance to quickly create a working plug-in so that they can see that it really isn't that difficult to do.

At this time I have started the "how-to" guide, but that is it. You can see what I've done on this guide, plus what I intend to do(since there is a table of contents), (url="http://"http://stark.evula.net/plugin_faq.htm")here(/url). This link will probably change when I release this guide and its various components, but for now this will be the 'working link.'

Feel free to reference this periodically as it will change. If at any time anyone has questions on this how-to guide, be it from things not listed that you would like to see included, things written that are incorrect or that do not make sense, to not liking the format, please let me know. Feel free to post in this thread or if you would prefer you can e-mail me at stark@evula.net.

Again, the purpose is to get more people interested in writing plug-ins. It isn't very hard, but it does take a bit to figure it out. I'm hoping to ease the figuring out part.

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(url="http://"http://stark.evula.net/pogwalkthrough.htm")PoG Walkthrough and Compendium(/url) | (url="http://"http://stark.evula.net/plugins/dev_tools.htm")PoG Dev Tools(/url) | (url="http://"http://stark.evula.net/plugins/spells_expander.htm")Spells Expander(/url)
(url="http://"http://stark.evula.net")Stark.evula.net(/url) now on (url="http://"http://www.evula.net")EVula.net(/url)

Those who can remember myself several months ago might recall that I once attempted to do exactly this, but with EVN. Alas, that project fell into the gutter halfway through, as I had three other projects I was working on (one of them TFM). Perhaps someday I'll sweep the dust off the Appleworks file and finish the guide, but I think someone has already made a plug-in tutorial. Oh well.

I sincerely hope this doesn't happen to you. I'd be happy to help and support this guide in any way possible.

Edit : Might I suggest a section for interesting tricks and workarounds? We plug-in developers seem to have accumulated quite a few, and I think it would help the developers who really want to make some weird snazzy effect, but don't know how Coldstone works well enough to be able to fudge it.

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"I never let school interfere with my education." —Mark Twain
(url="http://"http://www.evula.org/wolvenstudios/projects/tfm.html")The Four Mages(/url), an unfinished quest-oriented plug-in for Pillars of Garendall. | (url="http://"http://www.evula.org/wolvenstudios/projects/tfm_faq.html")TFM FAQ(/url) | (url="http://"http://www.evula.org/wolvenstudios/projects/tfm_log.html")TFM Progress Log(/url)
— Cafalll, the only permanent employee of (url="http://"http://www.evula.org/wolvenstudios/")Wolven Studios(/url).

(This message has been edited by Cafalll (edited 09-30-2002).)

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Originally posted by Cafalll:
I sincerely hope this doesn't happen to you. I'd be happy to help and support this guide in any way possible.

It won't. I'm about halfway through the actual how-to guide(so interested parties, there is more to view), and the plug-in/tutorial will not take long at all to churn out.

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Might I suggest a section for interesting tricks and workarounds?

I did mention in my post that I am open to suggestions. And this has been asked by a couple others as well. Anyone who has tricks or work arounds can e-mail them to me at stark@evula.net and I will include them, along with crediting the source.

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(url="http://"http://stark.evula.net/pogwalkthrough.htm")PoG Walkthrough and Compendium(/url) | (url="http://"http://stark.evula.net/plugins/dev_tools.htm")PoG Dev Tools(/url) | (url="http://"http://stark.evula.net/plugins/spells_expander.htm")Spells Expander(/url)
(url="http://"http://stark.evula.net")Stark.evula.net(/url) now on (url="http://"http://www.evula.net")EVula.net(/url)

Sounds like a great idea to me. Hope to see it soon. Also kudos to your website because I'm liking it alot.

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you wait/ all day/ and we just/ waste away/