New book about customizing the WoW UI

cladhaire · 05/31/07, 7:18 PM

This has been posted elsewhere, but I wanted to let everyone in this community know about a project I've been working on for the past half year or so. The author of Atlas and myself have been writing a book called "Hacking World of Warcraft", which is part of the ExtremeTech series by Wiley Publishing (This series includes Hacking Firefox, Hacking Gmail, etc.) The book is written to give all users a good introduction to World of Warcraft Addons, how to download/find/install, and then gives reviews and profiles of a number of different addons. The later chapters teach the user how to create two full scale non-trivial addons which are actually useful.

The publisher's website has some excerpts, including the Table of Contents, the Index and a part of Chapter 1. http://www.wiley.com/WileyCDA/WileyT...470110023.html.

Quick link to Amazon for those interested: http://www.amazon.com/Hacking-Warcra...0654222&sr=8-1

If you have any questions, please let me know, or contact me on the boards, or at cladhaire@gmail.com

- Jim

Trippy · 05/31/07, 7:21 PM

I'm really not sure this belongs here.

cladhaire · 05/31/07, 7:23 PM

Its a book about customizing the UI of World of Warcraft. If it doesn't belong here, I'll gladly delete it, but I'm not sure why it wouldn't be relevant.

*shrug*

Trippy · 05/31/07, 7:26 PM

I was under the assumption this book is a guide for illegal activities pertaining to the coding of WoW. Thats what I think of when the word "hacking" comes up. I apologize if this is not the case but,"Hacking World of Warcraft" seems to be a leaning to the shady side of addons.

cladhaire · 05/31/07, 7:27 PM

Perhaps you could read my thread, or the link before responding. All of the book in the ExtremeTech series have the title "Hacking ..." and in no cases do they promote illegal activity. Although the term "Hacking" has changed drastically over the past twenty years, it's as relevant here as it was back then.

I will change the post title to hopefully stop this from happening again.

Docjowles · 05/31/07, 7:30 PM

Yeah, I saw the thread title and immediately assumed this was going in the direction of "zomg how i hax0r w0w for moar goldz?" In hindsight, I definitely recognize your name from various addons, but you might want to try and change the title of the thread

Sounds like an interesting premise for a book, though. It's nice to see some addon authors getting a little something in return for their contributions to the community.

Edit: And I'm well aware that "hacker" has a different connotation these days. That doesn't mean morons won't abuse the term on these forums.

• Vulajin · 05/31/07, 7:30 PM

You may wish to evaluate the thread on the basis of its actual content rather than simply applying a blanket statement because of a single word. Although it is true that "hacking" is an ambiguous term, the mere use of the word does not imply that the book pertains to illegal or unsavory activities.

(edit) Beaten to it by two others... :p

cladhaire · 05/31/07, 7:32 PM

Thanks for the feedback guys.. Marketing is a nasty beast =)

Trippy · 05/31/07, 7:36 PM

I apologize for my brash responses, I did read both the link and the original post and was a little confused at what the premise was:

(take from the link)
"Hacks, hacks everywhere-hacks encompass such unique topics as combat, artwork and model, map, interface, loot, chat, raid, PvP, class specific, and more!"

However, I do understand that "hacking" also refers to the art of writing and redefining computer programs.

I guess I'm just biased from all the other books, or guides, involving World of Warcraft that end up being cheap scams that any real player would know at once (Leveling Guides for example.)

Anyway, the book does look interesting and informative.

cladhaire · 05/31/07, 7:38 PM

Understood. I'm used to fighting this fight, and I'm sure the other authors from this series have dealt with the same sort of issue. Unfortunately, Hacking Gmail doesn't exactly have the same connotation as Hacking World of Warcraft due to all the issues with bots, farmers, and people who try to exploit the game. Thanks for the feedback!

Randor · 05/31/07, 7:51 PM

Congrats, and I feel your pain having worked with Wiley on two books a couple of years ago.

Looks interesting though how much of it is aimed at people using the default UI and few mods vs. the (usually) highly organized and heavily modded UIs that tend to be posted here?

cladhaire · 05/31/07, 7:55 PM

Actually, the way the addons are grouped together ("Combat Addons", "Raid Addons"), etc. it can be good for people who don't spend all their time browsing the mod sites looking for the latest and greatest =). Its really geared towards your guildmates, your friends, and anyone who may not know what addons are really available, or what types of addons are available.

If you're a budding addon author, the two addons you write are non-trivial and actually do something useful in both cases. They don't just tell you what to type, they explain why you're typing it =).

Dan Gilbert · 05/31/07, 8:04 PM

Hello, I'm Dan, the other author! Just thought I'd say hi here...

I've been struggling with the name too for a long time, and I knew this kind of confusion would happen as soon as the book was made available. Unfortunately, the name wasn't up to me, rather it was Wiley's decision from the start. In the end, it was probably a good marketing choice for them, but certainly causes a fair share of confusion for many players.

Anyhow, Jim gave y'all the basic information. If you have any questions, feel free to ask (my email address is loglow@gmail.com). There'll most likely be some contests coming up where you can will a copy of the book (since I've got a whole box of em). At the very least they'll be at atlasmod.com, possibly some bigger sites elsewhere

stay tuned

enjoy

Dan

Kombinat · 05/31/07, 10:44 PM

The term "Hacking" is actually the correct one. If the book were about exploits in-game, it would more correctly be called "Cracking".

A Hacker is someone who, in general terms, makes software do what he or she wants it to, with the express purpose being generally ease of use, or implementation of features left out by the original designer.

A Cracker does the same things, just with malicious intent.

Customizing your UI fits under the first category, running a bot the second.

These days hacking carries a wide number of negative connotations, from Script Kiddie to Cyber-terrorism, but it's still the correct and accurate nomenclature to use in this case.

Cel · 05/31/07, 11:17 PM

Originally Posted by Trippy

I was under the assumption this book is a guide for illegal activities pertaining to the coding of WoW. Thats what I think of when the word "hacking" comes up. I apologize if this is not the case but,"Hacking World of Warcraft" seems to be a leaning to the shady side of addons.

A "Hack Solution" is a quickly coded application or method/function that is just what you need for the moment, not necessarily fleshed out in any way. :p

Figured I'd pass that along as well.

--

I'll definitely be reading this book at a Borders around here somewhere (go go college budget/debt)... I've been looking for a way to get into coding addons, but I'm not experienced with Lua. I was encouraged when Antiarc said something about how it's similar to JavaScript, so I'll be looking forward to a formal introduction to Lua and writing addons.