In v1.0.3 event arguments can now be directly accessed from the outgoing transitions of a Choice Point, instead of having to first save them in a state variable within the action code of the transition incoming to the Choice Point. This is true as long as there is only a single incoming transition and it has an event assigned.

Applying this to the model developed in the MiceOnABeam Basics video tutorial, we no longer have to save the data argument in the Line state variable in the dataserver transition. We can now access data directly in the GetNextLine and Done transitions.

Additionally as v1.0.3 now allows multiple bends within a transition, we added an additional curved bend to the Done transition to pretty up the diagram.

You can download an updated version of the Secure Door model from the video tutorial here.

From here you can select an error and go to the modeling component of interest. As well you can open up the corresponding Properties Editor which will display the error message right at the point in the LSL code where the error was found. You can then fix the error and quickly regenerate the code by selecting the Refresh button on the Code Generation Errors window to update the error list.

Undeclared LSL Variables & Functions are now flagged
References to undeclared LSL variables and functions are now detected and flagged as errors both when the Properties Editor is saved and again upon generation of the LSL code for the model (in conjunction with the new Code Generation Errors window as shown above).

Local variables that are multiply declared within the same local scope of an LSL code segment will also be flagged as errors.

Multi-Segment Straight or Curved Transitions with Auto-Align
You are now able to create multiple straight or curved segments for a transition! In previous releases there was only a single Selection Handle for a transition which you could then click and drag to create a curved bend in the transition.

To create an additional Selection Handle press and hold the Control key and click on the desired location on a selected transition. Then click and drag the new Selection Handle to create the new bend. To delete a Selection Handle, just Control-click it.

In addition if you would prefer straight line segments instead of curves for a particular transition, de-select Smooth Transition from it's context menu.

To align a particular line or curved segment of a transition to either a horizontal or vertical position, just hold down the Shift key when clicking and dragging a Selection Handle to the nearest horizontal or vertical plane. Note that alignment is always done one segment at a time, from the selected Selection Handle to the adjacent handle (towards the starting point of the transition).

Finally you can move the display of the transition's label to another Selection Handle by holding down both the Control & Shift keys and then clicking on the desired Selection Handle.

Those graphic designers among you can now really let your artistic side flourish! Me- not so much :-(

New State Explorer
In a more complex model consisting of several Composite States, it can be tedious to traverse the nested state hierarchy to get to the particular state of interest.

The new State Explorer feature addresses this by providing a tree-like view of the model's state hierarchy so that you can easily zero-in on the exact part of your model that you wish to examine.

Aside from just viewing the state hierarchy, you can also open up a State, Properties, Comment or State Variable/Functions editor from the context menu for a selected state in the State Explorer.




New Junction Point Modeling Component
A new toolbar component called a Junction Point is now available to help build your script models.

Similarly to an Entry/Exit Point the Junction Point can be used to merge several input transitions into a single output transition.  However a Junction Point is not limited to a state's border and can be created anywhere within a State Editor. It can really help de-clutter model diagrams by reducing the extent of transition lines.

And More...
Release v1.0.3 has lots more, including:

• New Icon Displayed for State with State Variables or State Functions
• State Variables & Functions Can Now be Moved or Copied Between States
• Direct Access to Event Arguments Now Provided in Choice Point Outgoing Transitions
• Wildcard characters Now Accepted Within Search Strings
• Larger Area Now Provided for State Variables in editor
• UI enhancements.

Upcoming
Next up I'll be focusing on enhancing the built-in library of LSL Actions and re-usable MiceOnABeam model components to help people get started. I'll also be developing a training class for new users and additional How-To videos to illustrate the use of specific features.

As a reminder of support options, for starters there's the MiceOnABeam group in Second Life. I encourage you all to use it for Q&A with other group members as well as myself. For more detailed Q&A you can always post in the forums on the MiceOnABeam website or contact MiceOnABeam Support. To report a product-related problem, please send an email to support@miceonabeam.com, or click Send Problem Report for a convenient form.

Merry Xmas!

Antonius

As promised with the earlier Sneek Peek for v1.0.3. here's a quick review of the latest features to have been completed.

Flagging of Undeclared LSL Variables/Functions

Long-awaited by most MOAB users I'm sure, v1.0.3. will now flag all undeclared LSL variables and functions as errors. This will reduce the occurence of generating the LSL from MOAB and then going into SL only to get a syntax error reported in the code editor there. See: http://screencast.com/t/qnJ8Y15vg.

Junction Point

The Junction Point is a new modeling feature that allows you to merge multiple incoming transitions into a single outgoing one. It will be great to help declutter model diagrams. See: http://screencast.com/t/3FanYhnmFxGh.

State Variables/Functions Icon

With this new feature a special icon will show on those states which have State Variables or State Functions defined. Now you can quickly look over a model and see where your variables and functions are defined. Further the icon will display at the bottom of a State Editor that is opened on a Composite State if that state has state variables/functions defined. See: http://screencast.com/t/2X5gg0ef2t.

Extended Comments

http://screencast.com/t/2X5gg0ef2t also shows how modeling component comments can be extended to display additional design information for states and transitions. By using the Show Comments toolbar button , you'll be able to see a list of handled events, state variables & functions, simply by moving the mouse over the component of interest.

This will also work for the State Variables/Functions Icon shown at the bottom of the State Editor for composite states as shown in http://screencast.com/t/ssoYPBBRHB.

Multi-Segment Transitions

In previous releases, there was only a single Selection Handle for a transition which you could then click and drag to create a curved bend in the transition. Now you'll be able to create multiple straight or curved segments for a transition!

In addition if you would prefer straight line segments instead of curves you can select that option from the transition's menu.

Additional new capabilities include being able to align a particular line or curved segment of a transition to either a horizontal or vertical position, and to move the display of the transition's label to a different point on the transition.  

See: http://screencast.com/t/8fi2XxhSX  for examples of these. You can even let your artistic side flourish when drawing your models. See: http://screencast.com/t/4bBSIPtiy6N.

Still a fair bit of cleanup and testing to be done. I anticipate a release early November.  If anyone is interested in beta-trialling the new release, please drop me a note at support@miceonabeam.com and let's chat.

Antonius

State Explorer

Here's the new State Explorer: http://screencast.com/t/ldGOojlyDQ

You will be able to open a State Explorer on any State Editor and it will show a tree of all the nested states. You can hide/display each level and open up a menu for each item. See: http://screencast.com/t/cUtMS7sN

From there you can open up various editors relating to the State.

Error Reporting

For the next feature I put in a new error reporting system for the code generation which will now check all LSL code in the model at code generation time for syntax errors, undeclared variables (new!) and validate LSL Actions. See: http://screencast.com/t/0IN2Uc8hVuy

This should save being surprised in SL with a syntax error after copying the generated code. From the error dialog you can open up the containing State Editor for the component as well as the actual properties editor.

This shows the modified code windows and how errors will be shown after being selected from the error list dialog. See: http://screencast.com/t/gx7PN2OSQy

Note that code lines are now numbered!

Direct Access to Event Arguments

Lastly (for now) is the feature that will allow you to directly access event arguments from the transitions leaving a Choice Point (if that Choice Point only has a single transition into it). See: http://screencast.com/t/mKtcPk4iN4c5

The graphic is from the door script from one of the tutorial videos. Note that in the Done transition you can now directly reference the data argument of the dataserver event of the transition leading into the Choice Point. I think that will remove alot of confusion for new users to MOAB who would naturally expect to access the arguments in this situation directly.

I'll post more info on additional features as they continue to be developed for v1.0.3.

Antonius

Using just the three modeling components of States, Transitions and Choice Points, you can build the model along with the tutorial and create a useful script for yourself in Second Life.

Check it out here.

Step 1: Learn the basics

While MiceOnABeam significantly simplifies your use of LSL and generates much of the scripting code, you should still become familiar with the basic concepts of LSL such as variables, datatypes, functions, flow control statements and events.

If you're not familiar with these please check out wiki.secondlife.com/wiki/Help:Getting_started_with_LSL or review the other introductory tutorials at the LSL Portal (wiki.secondlife.com/wiki/LSL_Portal) or LSL Wiki (www.lslwiki.net/lslwiki/wakka.php?wakka=HomePage).

In addition there are three key MiceOnABeam modeling features that you must become familiar with, namely the State, the Transition and the Choice Point. In many cases these modeling components will be all you need to create your script. Check out Modeling Overview to get up to speed here.

Step 2: Create a new script model

From MiceOnABeam's File menu, select New.... Then enter a name for your new script and click on the OK button. This will create a new State Editor window in which you will design your script model.

Step 3: Design the states for your script

The first step in the design is to break down your script's logic into one or more states.  States represent the major modes of your script. Each state represents a point in time where your script is waiting for a specific set of things to happen, called events, in your virtual world. Each event type can be handled in a different way depending on which state your script is in when the event is received. More help on using states and events is provided in the Modeling Overview.

To create a new state select the State icon   in the tool palette and then click within the State Editor at the location where you want the new state to appear. You can then rename, resize and move the state as desired.

Step 4: Specify the events that your script will respond to

To specify an in-world event that your script will respond to, you use a transition which is represented by an arrow line. To create a new transition select the Transition icon in the tool palette and then click and hold the mouse button within the State Editor on the state in which the event will occur. Then drag the mouse over to the state that you want your script to be in after processing the event (which can be the same or different state).

To assign an event to the transition, you must open the Properties Editor for the transition by right-clicking over it and selecting Edit Properties from the menu. Then choose the desired event from the drop-down list.  You can also optionally set a Guard Condition (which must be an LSL expression that returns TRUE or FALSE) to enable or disable the handling of the event.

Don't forget to create an Initial Transition from the Initial Point to the starting state for your script, otherwise your script won't know which state to start up in, and will simply terminate when run.

Step 5: Specify what should happen when an event occurs

Once an event occurs you will naturally want your script to perform one or more actions to effect changes within your virtual world before moving to the next state and waiting for another event. These actions can be specified in several places in your MiceOnABeam model, such as within the transition itself (Transition Action) or within a state (Entry and Exit Actions).

All action code is entered within the Properties Editor of the corresponding state or transition (right-click over the component to open it's Property Editor). Code can also be entered in global or scoped functions that can be defined.

To enter in action code you have two options:

• Use the LSL Actions feature to select one of the built-in actions provided in MiceOnABeam, or

• Insert your own LSL code directly.

After entering in your action code in the Properties Editor select the OK button to close and save your changes.

Note that you can also document your script model by entering in a textual comment for each modeling component. To create a comment right-click over a modeling component and select Edit Comment from the menu. To easily view your comments select the Show Comment icon  in the State Editor's toolbar and then move the mouse cursor over to the components of interest.

Step 6: Save your script model

From MiceOnABeam's File menu, select Save. Then enter a name for the model file and click on the OK button. This will save your model within the MiceOnABeam\Scripts folder of your documents folder.

Step 7: Set your debugging options

Once you've created the first draft of your script model, you'll want to test it out within your virtual world. To help you here MiceOnABeam provides special debugging features to help you.  From MiceOnABeam's Tools menu, select Options, and then click on Code Generation. Select one or more of the built-in execution tracing options and then select the OK button.

Step 8: Generate the LSL Script

You then generate the LSL code corresponding to the model by selecting Generate LSL... from the Script menu. A window will open up containing the generated code. You simply select the Copy button to copy the code and then paste it directly into your virtual world's scripting editor.

If you're using Second Life, ensure that the Mono checkbox is selected at the bottom of the SL editor, and then click the Save button. Ensure the Running checkbox is selected, and your MiceOnABeam generated script should now be running.

Step 9: Test & Iterate

Test your script in your virtual world, running through all possible events and situations that your script may encounter. When you need to make a change back in your MiceOnABeam model, make the change and simply press CTRL-g to generate the LSL script and automatically copy it to the system clipboard so that it's ready for pasting into your virtual world's scripting editor.

Note that the latest software development strategies advise that you add functionality to your script in small increments, testing at each iteration. In this way you will always have a working version of your script and can more easily back out a change that hasn't worked out.

Step 10: Optimize & deploy the generated code

After all your testing is completed and you are ready to deploy your new script, select Generate LSL (Optimized)... from the Script menu. This will generate a script for the model without any system-generated comments and as well perform several optimizations in the code. You can also select the Code Generation option to exclude comments that you have entered in the code for a more compact script.

Within MiceOnABeam's code editor you can simply select the desired LSL Action from a menu.

Once an LSL Action is selected, it is customized through the Wizard which displays a form that you simply fill in. The action is then automatically mapped to a set of LSL coding statements and function calls when the script is generated for the model.

Where there are multiple choices for the value for a property, a pop-up list is displayed to pick from.




What's particularly nice is that you can easily view the LSL code that will be generated for the configured action. This can be a great help in learning LSL!

In the Professional version of MiceOnABeam you can also create and edit your own custom LSL Actions and import them into MiceOnABeam creating a library of custom code snippets to speed up your script development.

Reusable Components
A key part of any software development environment is the capability to reuse existing designs to leverage past development. MiceOnABeam provides two mechanisms for this.

At the coding level, the LSL Action Wizard feature described above provides a set of configurable actions that can be inserted directly into the code sections of your model.  At a higher-level of reuse, it's also useful to be able to save parts of models as reusable components that can be easily browsed, imported into a model and configured if required.

The enhanced Component Library Browser provides a sortable folder view of your own MiceOnABeam model files that you wish to access as reusable components. You can simply drag a component from the browser into your model to reuse it.

As most components need to be customized when reused in a particular application, you can setup a state to be configurable and then call upon the Component Configuration Wizard to provide a form that you simply fill in. (Yes- I reused the same internal framework used for LSL Actions! :-)

Finally, a small number of built-in reusable components are currently provided with MiceOnABeam- with more to come! You can insert one for use in your model via a simple menu selection.

And More...
Release v1.0.2 has lots more, including additional code generation optimizations, pop-up help tips for editors and menus (you can of course turn them off!), state variable and function overrides and several UI enhancements.

Upcoming
Next up I'll be focusing on improving the online documentation to make it more accessible to new scripters while not losing of course the extensive reference material there. I'll also be developing How-To videos to help people get started and to illustrate the use of specific features.

As a reminder of support options, for starters there's the MiceOnABeam group in Second Life. I encourage you all to use it for Q&A with other group members as well as myself. For more detailed Q&A you can always post in the forums on the MiceOnABeam website or contact MiceOnABeam Support. To report a product-related problem, please send an email to MiceOnABeam Support, or click Send Problem Report for a convenient form.

Over the next while I'll also be outfitting the MiceOnABeam headquarters in-world so that office hour meet-ups, classes etc., will all be possible!

As always it's great hearing from you with any questions or comments. Ciao!

Antonius



To join the user group existing users of Second Life can click Join Group, otherwise click MiceOnABeam User Group Profile and first become a member of Second Life.

I realize that this time will not be ideal for everyone, but I will post a transcript of the chat on this website. Also the MiceOnABeam group is available 24/7 so I encourage you all to use it for Q&A with other group members as well as myself. For more detailed Q&A you can always post in the forums on the MiceOnABeam website or contact MiceOnABeam Support.

Note that this will be a group chat only, not a meet-up, strictly informal and open to any group member to ask questions or initiate discussions.  If there are any specific topics you'd like to hear about just let me know.

I'm currently scouting out locations for the MiceOnABeam headquarters so that meet-ups, tutorials etc., will all be possible in the future.

I hope to chat with you on Monday.

Ciao!

Antonius