Welcome to the fourth installment of "Under The Grid", an irregular look at the mechanics underneath Second Life. This time we'll look at the basics of a bot. An automaton in avatar form. Building a bot is hard, right? The sole purview of C++ or C# programmers, you think? Not so. If you're familiar with python, and are willing to take some time to learn the structure of libsecondlife, you can put together simple task oriented bots fairly quickly.

As with any programming task, the more complex the task the more research, writing and testing you will need to do. If you're going to start, start small. In many cases a simple task-oriented bot can automate an annoying task for you, while placing significantly lower demands on Second Life than logging in and doing it yourself. An important aspect of any Second Life automaton is to remember that Second Life is a shared space and set of resources and never to impose more load on the system than an ordinary avatar might. Less, if possible - and it is frequently possible.