Re: Zoom out

["Russell Y. Webb" <rw20@...>]

> From: "John Belmonte" <jvb@prairienet.org>
>
> Right, except that loadlib does not have to be in the Lua distribution to
> have this benefit.  The thing that takes Lua and adds loadlib, *that* would
> be the package that people would not need to recompile to install 3rd party
> libraries.  Even though the net result of this new package is identical, it
> represents a big psychological difference.  When a module standard has to be
> hammered out-- and everything else that is sure to follow-- there is now a
> proper place for it to happen.

I agree with John.  Lua is getting more complete in some sense with the
unification of global and table methods, multiple global states, the
addition of false, the addition of threading support, lexical scoping,
macros for making DLLs, unicode enablers, etc.

Each addition adds complexity even if well designed (as I think all these
are), so one must weight the implications of adding a feature with the
generality and portability but also consider how difficult it is to add
externally.  I don't see why a module system need to be part of Lua; it's
easy enough to add non-invasively (at least much less than threading
support).

Features that can be ignored still add noise to the system for the people
who don't need them and even more confusion for those who might encounter or
use an alternative.

Russ