Linden Script ( DSL for scripting objects in Second Life)

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Second Life



Second Life is a virtual world created by Linden Labs. A virtual world is a 3D world, which has 3D structures built in it. Virtual world tries to simulate the real world and thus has lakes, rivers, trees and even people in it. People moving around in the virtual world are called avatars. To be a part of this virtual world you have to create your avatar by registering with Second Life. After moving around in the virtual world for a while, you would get interested in building your own 3D artifacts.Second Life allows you to purchase a piece of land and construct 3D structures on it. Depending on your land size, you are allocated a fixed set of prims. These prims are your fundamental building blocks for creating your virtual world. For viewing, creating and manipulating your virtual world you need to install a special software called Second Life viewer. Second Life offers a rich set of 3D editing WYSIWYG ( what you see is what you get) features for manipulating the virtual world and the objects within it. The most interesting part of Second Life for developers like me, is a facility for scripting the objects with Linden Script.

Linden Script

Linden script is a DSL ( Domain Specific Language) for imparting behavior to prims. Each prim can have a set of scripts associated with it.These scripts can be used for several purposes

Change the prim's dimensions and other properties like colors and textures.
Change the prim's location and orientation.
Allow prim to react to events received from the virtual environment.
Exchange messages with other prims.
Exchange messages with user agents.

Linden script is a state based , event driven, imperative programming language.

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