Re: Is Lua right for me?

[Brian Mitchell <brian@...>]

On Wed, 3 Jan 2001, Chris Losinger wrote:

> 	The language i use needs to be:
> 
> 	a) usable for people who aren't programmers (think engineering
> students). Lua looks like it might be ok here.

Yes, I think lua would be fine here.

> 
> 	b) fast enough to do simple arithmetic on enourmous data sets (2d
> image manipulation). it doesn't have to be real-time, but it shouldn't be in
> elephant time either. any opinions?

Some high level algorithm primitives can be in C, increasing speed.

> 
> 	c) limitable. i need to be able to limit the language to keep users
> from going outside the scope of the host application. can this be done with
> Lua?

Yes. In Lua4, all the standard libraries are optional. You have to
specifically enable them.

> 
> 	d) usable with huge data sets. i read a few messages about Lua's
> garbage collection system and images that give me doubts.. i want to create
> "image" objects that allocate data with Win32's GlobalAlloc function, and i
> need this memory to be released when the object goes out of scope. is Lua's
> GC going to complicate this?

I'd prob allocate in C, and provide some functions (exported to lua) which
manipulate allocated memory.