RE: Python and Lua

["Ashley Fryer" <lua@...>]

> -----Original Message-----
> From: lua-l@tecgraf.puc-rio.br [mailto:lua-l@tecgraf.puc-rio.br]On
> Behalf Of Nick Trout
> Sent: Thursday, April 20, 2000 3:40 AM

> You have more choice with Lua, that is its strength.
> Python's is that the
> functionality is there and users concentrate on modules and
> extension libraries
> hence further increasing its "usefulness".

I admit this is an area where I'm jealous of Python!  It has a very nice
collection of libraries for image manipulation, ftp, www, tkinter, etc.  I
think many people decide to use Python because of the libraries.

So, why do those libraries exist for Python but not for Lua?

Theories:

* Python supports "import" semantics, thus encouraging libraries.

* From its early history, libraries were published for Python.  The early
contributions encouraged later contributions.

* Marketing... Lua is marketed mainly as an extension language, Python
mainly as a standalone scripting language, so Python naturally attracts more
extension libraries.

* User base.  Python has more users ( I think ), therefore it has more
libraries.

* Libraries are platform dependent, thus harder to propogate.  This explains
why Lua _doesn't_ have more librares, but Python has this problem too.  How
come Python overcame it but Lua didn't?

It would be nice to overcome this obstacle to broader acceptance of Lua.

Thoughts?

ashley