Re: Redirecting console output

[RLake@...]

function print(...)
  for i = 1, arg.n do arg[i] = tostring(arg[i])
  console.out(table.concat(arg, "\t"))
end

----

In Lua 5.0 beta, this works because tostring converts anything to a string
and print just calls tostring (from the global environment).

Note undocumented feature in Lua 5.0 beta: if present, the metamethod
__tostring will be called by tostring (and therefore by print). This must
return a string or a number if you want print to work properly.

However, it is often just as useful to redefine the global tostring. I find
this quite useful for debugging:

do
  local names = setmetatable({}, {__mode = "k"})

  local _tostring = tostring

  function tostring(x)
    return (x and names[x]) or _tostring(x)
  end

  local nameable = {["function"] = true, table = true, userdata = true,
thread = true}

  function Name(x, name)
    if nameable[type(x)] then names[x] = name end
  end

end

The following is also quite useful for debugging, given the above:

do
  local named = {}

  setmetamethod(getglobals(), {
    __index = named,
    __newindex = function(t, k, v)
                   Name(k, v)
                   named[k] = v
                 end
  }
end

I apologise in advance for any typos which might have crept in there... I'm
not doing this email on my Lua machine :)