Re: origins of Lua

[Boyko Bantchev <boykobb@...>]

On 8/7/05, Richard Ranft <rranft@lvcablemodem.com> wrote:
> Why so excited about this particular issue?
> Lua is a very handy language and personally I think that,
> while its origins are relevant, an absolutely accurate pedigree
> listing exactly which features came from where and each of
> those languages' origins are slightly less than critical.

Well, as I said, I was just curious.  And you are right, all this is
not that important -- at least to most people.  I just happen to be
particularly interested in how programming languages emerge,
evolve, age, and die, and how the inventions of one language
influence other languages.

As for Lua itself, I really admire it (and its authors), most of all
for the elegance and compactness of the language definition
and implementation.  I know of just a few languages so small
in size and yet so expressive.

On 8/7/05, Uli Kusterer <witness.of.teachtext@gmx.net> wrote:
> .....  Yes, they *could* be attributed to CLU, but the author
> apparently didn't get the idea to add those features until
> seeing Modula and C++.

That is the point, and that is the source of my curiosity.
How does it happen so that certain features go unnoticed
until seen elsewhere?  Maybe it is because of how features
combine?  Or how successful language authors are in
popularizing those features?  In this case, Lua's creators
apparently knew CLU rather well, but it was not this language
from which they felt they would borrow, say, `anywhere-
declarations'.  So, how does the anywhere-declaration style
look better in C++ than in CLU?

> What point would there be in lying about such a trifle?

I did not mean to offend anyone, and least of all I wanted to
accuse authors of lying.  Sorry if I was misunderstood.
English being not my native language, perhaps I was not
clear enough in posing my question.  All I was searching
for was some more information on the early history of Lua.

Regards,
    Boyko