Re: Lua Ecosystem

[Andrew Starks <andrew.starks@...>]

On Mon, Nov 25, 2013 at 4:28 AM, steve donovan
<steve.j.donovan@gmail.com> wrote:
> I was planning on writing a whole article on 'reinventing wheels' but
> decided that it would just contribute more text to an old topic.

In that spirit...

Ecosystem is a perfect metaphor. So is the word "culture."

As a language, Lua does not impose much hierarchy. Also, because of
the somewhat-unique relationship between its development and its
users, it evolves at a rate that is much more evolutionary, even by
computer programming Language standards. These two features make it an
extremely interesting universe to think about....

Anyway, adhering to a strictly emergent view of Lua's culture/ecosystem:

1: There is nothing right or wrong with it. It is the resulting form
that emerged from a simple language, implemented as a library to ANSI
89 C.

2: Hierarchical attempts to change it will fail because the
"ecosystem" will push back and the culture will ignore it.

[This is not to say that past attempts haven't resulted in tremendous
value. Kepler beget LuaRocks, LuaSocket, Copas, etc... These are
excellent and are used every day. The also did not turn Lua into a web
language. My guess is that many that do use Lua for the web often
don't use these tools.]

If you want Lua to be different, or at least for it to have a
Ruby-like gems resource, then the variables acting within it would
have to change. The people that need it would have to be different.
The language, its development structure and its implementation would
need to be different. Personally, I don't want any of those things to
change.

The very best software software is usually written in anger. [1] There
are some angry people on this list. :) One of them will crack
something out, it'll hit a tipping point and then a good chunk of
people will use it. In contrast, someone sitting down, gathering a
group together and sketching out a plan for the future is not what
progress will look like. IMHO.

So, therefore, I no longer think that a top down, roll-up-your-sleeves
and, "let's all get behind something" approach is going to change how
people perceive or use Lua. And yet it will continue to grow on the
power of...

To paraphrase another quote that I freaking cannot find, I'll just go
back to doing things The Lua Way:

Search github for a module that I can use to solve a problem, find
several that will suit my needs perfectly and then write my own.

-Andrew

[1] This is a loose paraphrase from Pieter Hintjens. I cannot find the
direct quote.