
Originally Posted by
3Garrett3
First off, here's some answers to your questions. I don't typically bot OSRS so I'm not the most knowledgeable but I've been at SRL since back when OSRS was the only RS, so here's the ol' college try.
1. Lape vs Pascal - I've read that Lape is faster, but most scripts I've tried here utilize Pascal, why? A lot of OSRS scripts use Pascal because it was very recently (relatively) that includes for OSRS were developed in Lape. Ever since Simba's existence, OSRS scripts were in Pascal. So the bulk of older scripts are Pascal, but the trend seems to be moving towards Lape (with Flight's Aerolib include).
2. What do you recommend using between Lape and Pascal? For long term, I see Lape being the language everything migrates to. There isn't any missing functionality in Lape compared to Pascal, and switching between OSRS and RS3 scripting would be easier that way too.
3. The guides I see around are from 2 - 8 years ago, are they still relevant? Those guides are all for old versions of SRL most likely. If you're interested in learning RS3 scripting, there's only a few tutorials - mostly by The Mayor. Aerolib has fewer guides for it that I can find, so you're probably best trying to figure out what's going on by reading other scripts after you learn the basics from The Mayor's tutorials.
4. How advanced can a script written in Pascal/Lape be? They can be as advanced as you'd like. A lot of my scripts start off as 300 lines and then I'll add features, failsafes, antiban, etc. and all of a sudden it's 1000 lines. I currently have been running a script for 2 days (RS3) and it's still going. I have also made a merchanting script that has some crazy difficult logic, which is why it isn't complete yet. In any case, the limitation won't be on Simba, it will probably be your problem solving/logic skills. The exception to this is that because Simba is color (except for OSRS Reflection) you will not easily find some items as well as with other programs. The GE in RS3 is a good example, grey on grey on grey is very difficult to determine what is going on for a color script.
5. If I use webclient instead of SMART, will it take control of my mouse cusor? Yes.
Next, I really like that you've made a list of tasks and logically presented what you're going to do. I find it really important to do that the more complex your scripts are. I worked in circles trying to figure out the logic for my last script, and I finally got out of a rut when I wrote down exactly what needed to happen. I actually ended up making a flow chart for exactly what would happen with the script I'm currently working on. So far no silly mistakes in the logic either.
Edit:
At the above posts - regarding time for scripting etc. I wrote my MerchantAid script and it took me 2 months to release an alpha stage script. I still haven't figured out how to make it automatic yet so it's on the back burner while I work on a private script to freshen up my mind a bit. That's taken about 2-3 weeks now and I'd say it's 40% complete maybe. There are a lot of people who can pop a script out in 2 hours and have it run 24/7, but I'm not that intense. Don't worry about setting time lines, it's a hobby and it should be fun, no need to worry about deadlines when you're away from work.