Re:My wish list :) [RE: How can we make lua better?]

[Philippe Lhoste <PhiLho@...>]

> Here's my current wish-list ( and yes - I do try to keep it small! ):
> 
> 1) Extensions to stand-alone interpreter (without recompilation)
> 
> Standard way of loading in extensions (C/C++ dlls/so's intended to be used
> >from Lua) without recompiling the stand-alone interpreter. This does not
> need changes in the language itself, just the interpreter (+ some docs).
> 
> I'm currently working on this and will be posting some results here soon.
> Thanks for all the hints I got about current loadlib's etc. a while
back!!!
> :)

AFAIK, Lua authors plan to integrate this to Lua 5.0.

> 2) += and -= operators
> 
> I _really_ miss these and they'd make code look more simple so it's
arguable
> that this 'feature' would actually be a simplification. :)
[snip]
> 
> 	Also:		string ..= "something appended to the string"
> 
> ...would be a logical extension of the same theme.

I agree, even if it is unlikely to go into the language. It seems it has
been already suggested in the past.
The ..= would be even more useful if leading to an internal optimisation:
not discarding the old string to the GC and creating a new one, but perhaps
recomputing the hash (adler32?) in place. I don't know internals enough to know
if it is possible.

> 3) Using hex char codes within strings
> 
> For 8-bit ANSI: "\xab" (and "\xabcd" if 16-bit strings are to be
supported).
> The current decimal "\ddd" notation is bad for many reasons (e.g. clash
with
> C's usage of octals that way). I would drop it away with no regrets!!

Why not, since it doesn't break the old notation...

> 4) 'File find' etc. in standard libs would be fine.

Probably not possible, because the standard libraries strive to stick to the
standard C library, that doesn't have a management of directories (since it
depends on the system).
I am making it in my LuaWin32 library.

> 5) Joining Qt (graphics toolkit) and Lua - has anyone done this yet?!?

Of course, it is a bit out of topic, since it will never be distributed with
the official version :-)

Regards.

-- 
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Philippe Lhoste (Paris -- France)
Professional programmer and amateur artist
http://jove.prohosting.com/~philho/
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