Wiley-World.of.Warcraft.Programming.A.Guide.and.Reference.for.Creating.WoW.Addons

14 Part I ■ Learning to ProgramDownloading and Installing LuaYou have three easy ways to obtain a Lua interpreter:1. Download WowLua, an addon the authors have written that gives youan interactive Lua interpreter within World of Warcraft.2. Visit the book’s website at http://wowprogramming.com/utils/webluato use an interactive Lua interpreter in your web browser.3. Download a Lua interpreter to your computer, so it can be run locallywithout access to the Internet or WoW.The first option enables you to run a Lua interpreter directly within World ofWarcraft. This is useful if you want to spend your time in the game watchingthings. The second allows you to run Lua without needing to downloadanything, so it will work even on computers where you can’t install software.The third option allows you to work with Lua when you’re not connected tothe Internet, which also can be useful.Any of these options will work for the examples in the first part of this book,so feel free to choose the ones that work best for you.Downloading and Installing WowLuaWe have created a version of the Lua interpreter that runs as an addon withinWorld of Warcraft. This is the simplest way to install a Lua interpreter foranyone with experience using addons. It also has the advantage of letting youwork within the game, allowing you to test your work on-the-fly, experimentwith the default UI and other addons, and still be able to chat with your friendsand guild.Navigate to http://wowprogramming.com/utils/wowlua-addon and clickthe download link to get the latest version of the WowLua addon. Thisdownloads a .zip file to your computer. Once you save the file, you canextract it using your favorite compression utility or by double-clicking it ona standard Windows XP or Mac OS X machine. A single folder called WowLuawill be extracted. Place the folder in the Interface\AddOns folder underneathyour World of Warcraft installation.You can verify that the addon is installed properly by clicking the Addonsbutton in the bottom-left corner of your character selection screen. You shouldsee the addon listed in a fashion similar to that shown in Figure 2-1.