Scripting tutorial #1: Getting Ready
What you'll need
Before you begin writing your scripts, you're going to need to prepare a few things. Since you're reading this, you probably already have everything, but just to make sure, here's the list of what you need:
- A program that can save a document in plain text
- A copy of Mike's Sprite Editor
- Some imagination
...and that's about it.
What does 'plain text' mean?
Computers can store data in all sorts of ways. A plain text file is a document that's been saved as just a block of text; letters without any special tags or features. Most fancy word processor apps store their data using elaborate formats, which are rarely readable by another program. Plain text, on the other hand, is readable by just about anything.
There are scores of plain text editors out there. Many of them are designed to help programmers, as the code used to create programs is usually stored as plain text. It's basically a popular standard. I prefer Kate, but you can use whatever you're comfortable with.
If you don't want to get fancy, Notepad is a plain text editor that comes with Windows, and it's perfectly capable of making your scripts.
Feel free to experiment; if you're not sure that a program will work, just try using it to create the Hello World script from the third lesson. If there's an issue, you'll find out soon enough!