as far as I can work out currently most of the chat output, such as the results from an end of a scan use this
<World of Warcraft>\Interface\AddOns\Auc-Advanced\CoreUtil.lua:37
function lib.Print(...)
local output, part
for i=1, select("#", ...) do
part = select(i, ...)
part = tostring(part):gsub("{{", "|cffddeeff"):gsub("}}", "|r")
if (output) then output = output .. " " .. part
else output = part end
end
DEFAULT_CHAT_FRAME:AddMessage(output, 0.3, 0.9, 0.8)
end

anyway.. the bit that looks like people would like some control over is
line 45: DEFAULT_CHAT_FRAME:AddMessage(output, 0.3, 0.9, 0.8)

more of whether it prints & where it prints.

maybe a popup frame or one of the commands that lets you pick a chat channel ?

I can't find the location to disable it... I did find how to enable/disable other end of scan messages/sounds but that wasn't the same thing.

at the moment I was researching the usage of DEFAULT_CHAT_FRAME:AddMessage
but not getting very far... the places I've looked either assume the reader already knows or is just using it to illustrate some other point.
argument structure etc, and other stuff related to DEFAUT_CHAT_FRAME


http://www.wowwiki.com/World_of_Warcraft_API
AddChatWindowChannel(chatFrameIndex, "channel") - Make a chat channel visible in a specific ChatFrame.
AddChatWindowMessages - Adds a messaging group to the specified chat window.

was giving me some ideas ... but I'd prefer to know where a comprehensive reference guide of the WoW inbuilt functions etc

http://www.lua.org/manual/5.1 is ok... but its too generalized .. since it doesn't cover WoW specific details.

http://forums.worldofwarcraft.com/thread.html?topicId=64187212&sid=1 has

Interface AddOn Kit
The 2.0 Live Interface AddOn Kit is available for download found here:
http://ftp.blizzard.com/pub/WoW/other/InterfaceAddOnKit_Win.zip
http://ftp.blizzard.com/pub/WoW/other/InterfaceAddOnKit_OSX.zip

The Burning Crusade BETA Interface AddOn Kit can be found here:
http://www.worldofwarcraft.com/downloads/expansion-bc/addonkit.zip

Significant Changes
* WoW 2.0 has upgraded to Lua 5.1.1 as it provides a number of benefits (notably incremental garbage collection and efficient varargs). There ARE some incompatible changes from Lua 5.0, authors should read http://www.lua.org/manual/5.1

http://www.wowwiki.com/Lua_functions .. doesn't list what I was looking for either

.. hmm ok I found in

<World of Warcraft>\Blizzard Interface Data (enUS)\FrameXML\ChatFrame.lua
DEFAULT_CHAT_FRAME = ChatFrame1;

so I am still looking for where AddMessage is defined.
hmm maybe
AddMessage(string, info.r, info.g, info.b, info.id);
- string is looks self explanatory - and looks like the only required parameter
- info.r, info.g, info.b - looks like red green blue colour values - each 0.0 to 1.0 values - optional
- info.id another number but I haven't worked out how its used. - optional

(ok I am thinking out loud)

thanks... looks like it was hidden on http://www.wowwiki.com/Widget_API under ScrollingMessageFrame ... which didn't click to me as related to chat frame.


http://www.wowwiki.com/API_ScrollingMessageFrame_AddMessage is the information I was after and http://www.wowwiki.com/UI_Escape_Sequences explains how others had been using it also.

API ScrollingMessageFrame AddMessage

Outputs text to a local MessageFrame, with optional color id.

MessageFrame:AddMessage(text[,r,g,b[,id]]);

Parameters
Arguments

(String text, Number red, Number green, Number blue, Number id)

text
The string message to output
r
The intensity of the red component. A number between 0.0 and 1.0
g
The intensity of the green component. A number between 0.0 and 1.0
b
The intensity of the blue component. A number between 0.0 and 1.0
id
A number that classifies the line of text, for later changing the color

Returns

nil

Supported Escape Sequences

|cAARRGGBB
Sets text color. Text following this escape sequence will be drawn in this color. Each pair of digits represents a color value (plus the alpha value) as a hexadecimal number.

* |cFFFF0000 - Red text
* |cFF00FF00 - Green text
* |cFF0000FF - Blue text
* |cFFFFFF00 - Yellow text
* etc.

|r
Reset the color, all text following this sequence will be drawn in the default color of the text.
|Hlinkid|hLinktext|h
for Hyperlinks, while the only currently known links are item, enchant and player links
|Hitem:ItemID|hLinktext|h
for Item Links (ItemID must be the full Item-Id, ie. d:d:d:d:d:d:d:d style)
|Henchant:EnchantID|hLinktext|h
for Enchant Links
|Hplayer:Name|hLinktext|h
for Player Links (Click to whisper, CTRL-Click to select and Shift-Click to do a /Who Name)
|n
Possibly as newline in some cases.
||
Output "|" regardless of if whatever follows it looks like a valid escape.


A "|" followed by something that is not a valid escape sequence will be displayed as-is.

ok with more time I should be able to think of something. thanks again

Posted By: RandallStupid question, but if I created a message frame called "Auctioneer", would this turn into "Auctioneer:AddMessage(...)"?

That's correct. Object:Action() in general means to do Action() on Object.

This functionality has been added to the current dev version. If all is well, should be available in the next release.