Scripting in Second Life

I used to teach computer science and computer programming. I've always been intrigued by the possibility of teaching programming in the context of a virtual world. I finally got motivated to start playing with the Linden Scripting Language - LSL - and I rather like it. It's an event-driven language that has states built-in as a primitive. This makes it pretty easy and natural to write interesting programs quickly.

Last night, I co-led a seminar on "Scripting for Educators" and it was a blast. The educators ranged from some who had obviously done some programming to others who had none. We walked through an example of an object that changed its color each time it was touched. I enjoyed being able to demonstrate a simple but interesting script with no loops or if-else. I'm definitely interested in doing more.

Right now there is a lack of decent tutorial materials on scripting in second life. Most of the code examples I've seen are mediocre or poor. So it's a real opportunity for those who understand programming and how to teach it to get in on the ground floor.