Re: Limitations of standard C, formal interfaces, and other musings. Was: ms-level timings

[Brian Hook <hook_l@...>]

> Core Lua provides no more than can be done with the standard C
> libraries. One reference I use for standard C (there might be
> better ones) is here: http://www-ccs.ucsd.edu/c/index.html

I think this is an important point, and a good point for Lua in 
general -- it doesn't try to hide operating system details from you, 
it's simply a language on top.  That it isn't littered with #ifdef 
_WIN32 statements (unlike many other open source projects) is a good 
thing.

Some areas are far too ambitious to roll into a standard 
distributions: graphical interfaces, a math library, a native threads 
library, high quality audio, file/directory handling, signal handling, 
etc. 

That said, there are certain concepts that are common across a huge 
range of platforms that could easily be encapsulated in a single file 
and would likely benefit a lot of users.  The obvious ones are a ms 
accurate timer (when available), sleep, and maybe a handful of others.

Brian