How much programming experience should I have before trying to make a plugin?

[SergeantBlueforce]

I am aware that I don't have enough experience yet as I have only begun learning how to program, but how much experience should I have before trying to make a plugin?

[ttb]

I say go for it now, with what you know. IMHO, practising on a real life project is the best way to learn. When you hit a brick wall, consult your reference or good old Dr Google.

The finished product may end up being completely different than how it starts out, and that's OK, cause you would be learning along the way.

Thanks

ttb

[EndlessWaves]

but how much experience should I have before trying to make a plugin?

In general none at all, a basic plugin is a very simple thing.

Obviously if you want something more complicated you may want to start from scratch when you've got more experience, but making a rubbish version of it first both gets you insight into the game and problem as well as the general experience.

[SergeantBlueforce]

I know that there is some documentation on the wiki for plugin development, but can you point me in the right direction as to what software I should use and where to get it?

[Superfluous J]

When I recently tried to write a plugin, this page led me to this page, which got me set up with SharpDevelop. I then wrote my first (and only, at least for the time being) plugin, a pretty much exact copy of what is on this page.

After that I floundered. Other than writing to a log, I really don't know where to start. Hopefully this will be enough to get you started, or give others a springboard to continue helping you (and me! )

[EndlessWaves]

but can you point me in the right direction as to what software I should use and where to get it?

Use whatever you want, the main requirement is that you produce a common language runtime assembly at the end of it. The most popular choices around here are the C# IDEs - MonoDevelop/Xamarin Studio, SharpDevelop and Visual Studio (Express).

After that I floundered. Other than writing to a log, I really don't know where to start. Hopefully this will be enough to get you started, or give others a springboard to continue helping you (and me! )

What are you trying to do?

Edited December 16, 2013 by EndlessWaves

[Superfluous J]

What are you trying to do?

Most generally... Learn how to mod

More specifically, I want to make an alternative to TAC fuel balncer where you can right click on a docking port and tell it to pump fuel either "up" or "down" (from its perspective. Maybe in and out but that's semantics and I can worry about that once I have something that works) so you can dock a ship to your refueling station, tell the docking port to "fill 'er up," and then head on your merry way.

Assuming I can get that, I'd like to add "transfer in" and "transfer out" functionality to the right-click options of fuel tanks as well. Maybe even "balance."

I downloaded TAC's code and perused it but as a - like the OP - non-coder I'm finding the sheer volume of stuff I need to learn to get from "write something to the log" to "a mod that does something useful" to be too much.

[jordanjay29]

Start small. I haven't attempted a mod for KSP yet, but it's like other coding projects. Write a tiny mod, something you know will effect a change, and test it. See if your code works and how well it works. Then start adding complexity. For example, perhaps consider merely adding a display of fuel percentages to the docking port when you right click. Then go deeper and start figuring out how to perform actions on it. Go slowly and be patient, keep testing, and feel free to come back here often to ask questions. There are plenty of decent modders who are happy to assist a newcomer.

[Diazo]

I had pretty much no knowledge when I started.

Some experience with VB running on top of Microsoft Office at work and that was it.

The key is to know what you want. I got tired of crashing (landing) so I wanted something that let me control my speed, rather then control my throttle, so I wrote my Velocity mod that allows me to adjust my descent rate in 1m/s increments.

Then I started adding more stuff in, such as the nicer GUI, the height control stuff, etc. But to start, all it did was "Hit Z to hover" and "Hit Z-Ctrl to increase my descent by 1m/s" and that was it.

D.

[pxi]

The key is to know what you want.

This.

Learning to program is fairly easy, you'll really only flounder if you (like me) set out to 'learn to program' without any particular goal in mind. I learned variables, looping structures etc. using BASIC about 25 years ago, didn't do much with it at the time till the last few years. You'd be suprised how little has changed in that time. I picked up PHP in a couple of months, and haven't looked back. Frankly, Object-Oriented Programming was the only real head-scratcher for me, given where I've come from, that's probably somewhat understandable.

These days, with the internet, it's extremely easy to think, 'I want to make X', break it down to a series of steps, and look for ways that people have solved similar issues. Stack Exchange and the like are invaluable.

Just make something that works, it doesn't have to be pretty, elegant, or even efficient - that comes later.

[WinkAllKerb'']

This.

You'd be suprised how little has changed in that time.

Basically most nowdays languages use combination of 'Word made from caracter/pictogram' + 'Grammar rules to articulate thoose word to a meaning'.

Same goes with computer, if your able to speak you're able to code don't fear yourself too much. Main difference is computer languages often use way less words and rules than spoken ones making them easier to handle fast.

It's not like it's only a 25 years old concept .

Frankly internet is so overflooded in the last 15years that it not always as easy to find relevants info between craps like before you just have to spend a few more time filtering amongst search results

Edited December 17, 2013 by WinkAllKerb''