Re: 99 Bottles of Beer...

[Luiz Henrique de Figueiredo <lhf@...>]

>> >real token (ie. doesn't generate a specific bytecode, or
>> something like that).
>>
>> `^' does generate a specific bytecode.
>> --lhf
>
>OK, but I meant `:' probably doesn't generate a specific bytecode.

Again, it does:

% luac -
a:x()
% luac -l

main <0:@(stdin)> (4 instructions/16 bytes at 0x8051f48)
0 params, 2 stacks, 0 locals, 2 strings, 0 numbers, 0 functions, 2 lines
     1  [1]     GETGLOBAL       0       ; a
     2  [1]     PUSHSELF        1       ; x
     3  [1]     CALL            0 0
     4  [1]     END        

>As somebody which have just finished reading the Lua 4.0 manual, I also think 
>a tutorial (or more!) would be useful.

Roberto is working on a book about Lua and plans to release draft versions
for comment. This should happen "soon".

>I am playing with the idea of writing a Lua tutorial myself, but I fear lack 
>of time will prevent it.

Same here...

>As a Lua beginner, I may not be the most qualified person to do it, but I use 
>to think that the beginner state is useful for such things, as we are aware of 
>the problems, pitfalls, and traps where we can trip. Now, Lua is quite an open 
>community, so one can write such a tutorial, and submit it to public review, 
>to improve it and add the view of more seasoned Lua programmers.
>What I have in mind is to write a full program, like an HTML pre-processor, 
>showing the various steps, introducing more and more advanced concepts, etc.
>I would introduce the tags quite later, the base libraries progressively from 
>the beginning, drop alternate syntax (like f"string") or give them later.

That sounds like a great project. Literate programming in Lua is a good way
to teach the basics of the language.
--lhf