Hello to the list!

[Juergen Fuhrmann <fuhrmann@...>]

Hi,

I am new to this list, and I'd like to introduce myself because we are
considering rather seriously to use lua for some projects. 

I am  working at the   Weierstrass Institute for Applied  Analysis and
Stochastics (see  http://www.wias-berlin.de  -  the Server   isn't too
informative  for some administrative reasons,  we  are about to change
that...) in the   departement of numerical   matematics and scientific
computing.  We are   concerned  with  numerical  solution of   partial
differential  equations which  model  porous media flow, semiconductor
devices, phase transition processes in steel etc. We try to do this on
the base of a modular library of matrices, iterations etc. 

This library  has also some kind  of batch processing language, and we
also tried to write our own pascal like extension  language. As we are
numerical mathematicians and not informatics people, we naturally have
not enough time  for this  job, so  we  decided to stop  these efforts
(some years ago already) and to use  one of the extension languages on
the "market". 

But which one ? As we had our own experiences and  ideas with that, we
have some strong demands  to this kind of languages.  This led  to the
situation  now  that  in  our   opinion, all   the  standard extension
languages (tcl, perl,python,slang,java,scheme)  do not  fulfill one of
the following: 

* small, compact language kernel which is _absolutely portable and stable_
* easy syntax - we want that our project partners who are engineers not 
  experienced in informatics to be able to understand and to write scripts
* license conditions which allow flexible use in application projects
* C code integration not by generated interface stubs but by calling 
  register methods from C.
* code development policy with strong commitment to interface stability

Up to now, slang seemed to be closest to these demands, but now I have
the enthusiastic feeling that lua is just exactly what we need! 

So my first questions to the list:

What experiences do you  have with using  lua in medium to large scale
projects  ?  How stable  is it's behaviour ? How  portable is it ? ( I
got it  to work just  for  fun on an  old 386sx  with a five  year old
TurboC and msdos, and _absolutely no problem_ ! Great!) 

Best regards
Juergen

Dr. Juergen Fuhrmann                   mailto:fuhrmann@wias-berlin.de
                         Numerical Mathematics & Scientific Computing
    Weierstrass Institute for Applied Analysis and Stochastics Berlin
                    if you believe me they put a man on the moon /rem