The SDK and all it's hype!

[Kain Nobel]

Okay, so I've been scripting for a good while now finally, and everything is turning out great with whatever I aim to accomplish, but I've been wondering....

What's all the damn hype about the SDK? Why are alot of the *great* scripters so adimate about "Oh, you have to use the SDK, you need to evolve" and all of that? I've read half the documentation (which is the only reason I know how to script), yet... I don't know what the SDK really enhances or fixes or whatever, I've always looked at it as an "Error logger" and thats prettymuch it.

From a user of the SDK, or even an SDK author, I would like to know why I should use the SDK and how it can supposedly help me become a better scripter and "evolve". What kind of special methods are added into the SDK to make scripting easier, or better yet how do I determine if its something I should use?

Thank you for taking time to read/reply to my post, because even after reading the entire documentation and skimming through the SDK, I still don't know what the hell it really does besides log alias errors.

 

[Me(tm)]

It's not the log part most scripters use it for, but the alias part. The SDK breaks up a lot of default scripts' methods, so we - the scripters - can alias only that part we need, instead of having to rewrite complete methods, losing compatibility.

Without the SDK, two scripts might rewrite the same method, making them colliding. However, with the SDK, it's most probable that both scripters can either alias the same, or a different method to accomplish what they want.

 

[Kain Nobel]

Ah, now I understand what the purpose of it is, thanks Me(tm), I'll definately be making the switch sooner rather than later! :D

I've got tons of documents on SDK stuff, its all pretty messy though... is there a simple document telling you what the 'new' methods are? For instance, in the Scene_Map update method (which I'm guessing has been broken down into mini-methods), is there a document that tells you the 'mini-methods' and their names? Rough example (I'm not sure if it's really set up like this...)

Scene_Map
..Update
....update_spriteset
....update_transition
....update_message
....update_encounter

So I can go in between these methods and add something like....

update_spriteset (origional mini-method)
update_mymethod
update_transition (origional mini-method)

etc... in between two certain methods, for whatever reason, without having to re-write the update method entirely? It'd be nice to have a document like that which I could look at instead of having to refrence back into the SDK script to dig a sub-method out. Is there a sub-method document around?

 

[Me(tm)]

There's a list of modified methods in the SDK documentation in the script I believe, but I always just look up where my code needs to be placed (aka Im adding sprites to the spriteset, meaning it would be in the update part of Scene_Map), then I search (CTRL + F) in the SDK for the class and look up the method I would have placed it in (then I find, update_spriteset) and then I alias my code into that method.

etc... in between two certain methods, for whatever reason, without having to re-write the update method entirely? It'd be nice to have a document like that which I could look at instead of having to refrence back into the SDK script to dig a sub-method out. Is there a sub-method document around?

Most likely you would alias the update_transition or update_spriteset to place your code in it. I don't believe there's a document on what is in every SDK-method, but you can look it up easily yourself.