RavenScript didn’t start as a grand vision. It started because some friends wanted me to write some scripts for them. A scanner. A teleport system. Sliding doors. A texture changer. Quick and dirty scripts. The problem is, I’ve been a professional programmer and software architect in RL for 25 years and I rather hate quick and dirty.
I prefer to write power software with a broad range of capabilities and tons of user flexibility. So while I was delivering early versions to my lead users, I started to think much more broadly about a system of builder’s scripts that would take most things builders want to do to a whole new level.
The Joy of Isle Scanner
My first significant script was a scanner made to spec for Isle. Isle has limited bandwidth, so she wanted a scanner that could run as a prim, not as a radar hud. Pretty simple requirements – report on who is in a specific area, when they leave. Throw up a list. It was called “The Joy of Isle” because the first script was installed in a picture with that title.
RavenPort
The first system I wrote and delivered as a product was RavenPort (currently in beta) which provides for a set of teleporters and destinations to auto-discover each other. Destinations could be permissions restricted. It was handy, and set the tone for power and flexibility. Product release coming sooner than later.
RavenPrim
I had started hitting memory limits in RavenPort, and realized I needed to re-architect my scripts. The next request for scripts was from a builder who needed a number of functions (sliding and swing doors, secret walls, windows, lights), and I began to think – why many scripts? Why not one configuration driven script? This gave birth to the RavenPrim. I began to see that builders didn’t want a piecemeal approach to their scripted behavior, they just lived with that because SL scripters were only building pieces.
The RavenScript Vision
Out of all this, a vision emerged which was a single, unified and expandable system of scripts that all worked together to meet a builder’s needs. RavenPrim is the start, but only the start. The Scanner will integrate with the prim’s communication protocol, so things can happen (Pictures go PG, stuff can hide, doors unlock, lights turn on) when certain people are nearby, or certain people are absent. A control system will enable time of day changes. A single unified permissions system would underlie all of these interacting elements.
While builders might be shipping designs using these scripts, users could buy add-ons from them, or other designers, and they would just fit in. Or get the scripts and extend the system themselves.
It’s a bit fuzzy still, this vision, but the basic thought is simple. Flexiblity, power and integration.
Welcome to RavenScript.
