RE: Simple AI Scripting, Help Me!

[virgil@... (Virgil Smith)]

Sigh.  My apologies to all for a wastingly emotional post.
I am not a Lua master, but I found it incredibly simple to "get".

I have to admit that I am befuddled at how "something so simple" in the
realm of script extensions to an application can be difficult to work out
using Lua.

Tim, would you please resend me <directly> your descriptions of what you
having been trying to accomplish.  If I'm moved enough to gripe I should be
moved enough to pay serious attention to the subject.  Quite likely I'll
learn something from the process.  Thanks.

Again, my apologies to all, and I'll search my office for that self
restraint system that I should be using to keep myself from wasting list
bandwidth (based on attention and time of those involved, not precious
bytes).


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<background I rambled that few probably care to actually read, but if your
are really bored go ahead, just don't reply about it to the whole list
please>

I started with embedding Lua 4 into a "scientific type" application.  The
point of embedding scripting for me started as a way to avoid constant
"project switching" to support the main development team's continual
experimenting with different ways of analyzing the data.  Once started, I
quickly used Lua to implement the "file format" for the program because it
was easier to make a general purpose file reader/writer capable of handling
tree structures and numerous data types than to support the goofy automatic
file naming/directory structure dependent system "they" suggested for
indicating relationships between separate data sets, and intermediate
analysis data generated from operations on multiple base datasets.
Furthermore, I quickly implemented a library loading system through Lua to
decouple the development of the data capture system from the data display
and analysis tools (and the capture system then plugged into the
display/analysis UI).

Of course, lo and behold Lua 5 (with a standardized library loading system,
coroutines, and honestly a host of tiny fixes to what I felt were minor
deficiencies) had been released a mere 3 days after I started this process
(a shame I didn't notice it for 2 weeks).

All of this "joy" with Lua came after I investigated several other scripting
languages and how to connect them to an application (which generally was
really annoying though SWIG makes many of them not monumentally annoying to
start using, but merely "simply" more annoying than writing a parser to hand
make a very limited scripting system).

-----Original Message-----
From: lua-bounces@bazar2.conectiva.com.br
[mailto:lua-bounces@bazar2.conectiva.com.br]On Behalf Of Tim
Sent: Tuesday, December 09, 2003 1:39 PM
To: Lua list
Subject: Re: Simple AI Scripting, Help Me!


>OK, sorry I didn't mention it in my step by step response, but the Lua
>manual is a mere 65 pages long, and so reading and re-reading the manual is
>very well doable (and you should have been able to read it once, or even
>twice in the time you have spent on writing these questions into the
mailing
>list).

>In useful information to you specifically your holiness who doesn't seem to
>have time to even read the table of contents to the manual, for your exact
>problem with comprehending how to use Lua, you can skip the sections on the
>standard libraries, AND the section on the debugging interface which brings
>the total page count down to mere 35.

>As for where the hell you can find information on interfacing Lua to your
>GAME.  Um, that would be THE MANUAL.  So RTFM and shut up.  The whole point
>of reading the manual multiple times is primarily BECAUSE THE MANUAL IS SO
>SHORT AND CONCISE.  Also, it is because YOU NEED SO LITTLE OF LUA TO
>ACCOMPLISH MOST TASKS so you will likely miss the great flexibilities of
Lua
>since for most uses you will need so little of it, so before you discount
it
>as too trivial for some later task, go back and look again.  I personally
>don't understand why your problem requires anything more than a couple of
>tables (supplied by your scripts) and registering some user functions that
>operate on those tables, but maybe I just haven't spent enough time trying
>to understand your problem.

Does the manual tell you how to use co-routines from c++, or multiple
states?  You know it doesn't matter,
I don't want to argue this, I have more important things to do.  I browsed
through the manual, and couldn't find much regarding how to set things up
from the c++ side, how to set up the threads from app, etc.  You don't have
to flame me, I was frustrated ok, everything I read was how to set them up
from lua side of things, thats all.  And yes I'm a beginner, and don't much
about lua, and how to use it, so don't flame me if you are a master at it,
because you being a master and knowing it .. helps me none.