Re: gtk+2 and Lua - first sample

[Eero Pajarre <epajarre@...>]

Asko Kauppi wrote:
> 2 layers is a must :) but how about three, or more?
>
> The first one (in C) is a plain C/Lua API (doing some table stuff etc. 
> but mostly following the C API). This is just a lot of work, and rather 
> unusable (or, you could be coding in C just the same..)
>
> The second one (in Lua) is an object oriented one, tying the bits and 
> pieces together into a more realistic framework. This is probably "how 
> the GTK+ object system was meant to be" kind-of level.
>
> The third one (and on..) will be helper functions for this and that, 
> such as gathering menus and box layouts by simple tables, instead of 
> doing them part by part.

I see one possible major problem with a simple implemetation of the
level one API. Does it enable crashing the application?

I mean something like:

button = create_button("Hello");
destroy_button(button);
set_label(button,"Don't do this");

Avoiding this can add quite a lot of code to the level 1
implementation, especially if the C level libary isn't
helping.

Of course if the level 1 API is hidden from the application programmer,
and only used in implementing the real, higher level, API then 
everything is fine.

This occured to me when I considered adding Lua into a plugin
enabled (closed source) CAD application, and I noticed that
making the Lua API crash proof was not going to be trivial.


	Eero