IDEs and Editors - Scripting for Second Life

If you write computer code, you'll have heard of Eclipse. It's an integrated development environment (IDE) and is used to develop software in many computer languages. It's great not just for Java, but also C, C++, Python, Perl, PHP, etc. It is multi-platform too, so can be used on Linux, Windows, or Mac.

Of particular interest to those developing content for SecondLife, are some of the additional plug-ins available. The P's are easy to find (Python, PHP, Perl), but Eclipse also has plug-ins for things like LSL and Scheme. Eclipse lets you keep projects organized, and enjoy features like syntax highlighting: Plug-ins like LSL Plus also let you do offline editing and testing of LSL code (compile, debug, optimize, and simulate script performance).

If you are not a programmer and/or find the Eclipse package is overkill for your needs, you might want to try one of the editors that also has syntax highlighting and project support. There are a number listed on SL's page of Alternate Editors.

One editor of note that is missing from the list is Bluefish. It has easily customizable syntax highlighting and menus. It doesn't have LSL listed as a document type, but you can easily tweak it for your own use. Bluefish is also available on multiple platforms (I haven't tried using it on Windows or Mac, but it has always performed well for me on Linux & Unix). While I prefer to keep projects organized in Eclipse, Bluefish is clean, lightweight and a good choice for "one-offs."

A couple more links:

• http://www.eclipseplugincentral.com/ - Eclipse Plugins Central
  
• http://sourceforge.net/apps/wordpress/schemeway/ - SchemeWay, Scheme plug-in for Eclipse

If you haven't touched LSL yet but are curious about it, check out the events in-world for scripting classes, join a scripting group, or read the LSL Tutorials on the SecondLife wiki.

Happy coding!