Re: lua_lock

[Mark@... (Mark Ian Barlow)]

In message <9711131905.AA12546@exu.inf.puc-rio.br> lua-l@tecgraf.puc-rio.br writes:
 >   The Lua reference mechanism (Section 5.6 of the manual) has an
 > option that allows C to keep a reference to a Lua object without preventing
 > the GC to collect the object. Does anyone use this option? It was supposed
 > to be useful in breaking 'reference cicles', when C keeps a reference to a
 > Lua object and Lua keeps a reference to the C object (userdata), and then they
 > would be never collected. But we are not sure whether anyone ever succeed in
 > using it...

Am I right in thinking that you are *not* proposing deletion of the lua_ref
mechanism, whereby a host program can create tables for it's own use, protect
them from the GC and hide them from Lua, whilst still exploiting lua_*
functions to do associative lookups within them? I do this a lot.

--  Mark Ian Barlow                Non-Linear Control Consultants Ltd.
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    Mark@nlcc.demon.co.uk            Voice / Fax: +44 (0)1207 562 154