Re: table design choices

[David Kastrup <dak@...>]

spir <denis.spir@free.fr> writes:

> (below just wish to know about original design choices I couldn't find in docs about lua history -- I don't mean there bad, nore good)
>
> -1- reasoning on single container type
> Why is a single container type supposed to be better?

Simplicity.

> My view is actually there are three use cases, which map to distinct conceptual notions:
> * sequence = indexed values
> * "directory" = named (or more generally key-ed) value
> * structure = either "record" (eg position={x=1, y=2}) or "object" (eg point={pos={1,2}, color="#ffffff"})
> The first 2 cases are close, but the latter is really
> different. Rather a kind of named tuple.

Since strings are interned in Lua, not enough difference to warrant the
additional complications.

> -2- reasoning on choice of table
> Why is a table supposed to be better as single container type?
> (compared to lisp/scheme list)

Random access is a frequent enough requirement for algorithms to make
O(n) access undesirable.

-- 
David Kastrup