Re: Scripting language takes a silicon turn

[Chris Marrin <chris@...>]

David Given wrote:
> ...
> Python's big killer feature is the library set, which Lua doesn't have. I 
> wonder --- might it be possible to build a Lua-to-Python-extension connector 
> to allow Python libraries to be used in Lua?

The problem with that (as has been argued here) is that a "big" library 
for Lua goes against the design principal of small and fast, with plenty 
of extension capabilities. The problem with briding Lua to Python is 
that then you need Python on every machine that you want to run Lua on, 
and the styles of the libraries would probably not match well. You might 
as well choose a library built specifically for Lua, of which there are 
many.

I think the problem is that it is too hard to collect together the 
needed libraries. I believe Lua does need to ship with "a little more" 
libarary functionality, which is why I am working on osex. But we also 
need installers for this core and a useful set of extension libraries to 
make setting up your installation easy.

Maybe we should have something like CPAN, the Perl archive network. I 
hate the interface to this system, but conceptually it is good. Once you 
set it up on your machine (and it is included with recent versions of 
Perl) you can search for a library you want and then ask it to install 
it. As long as your platform is supported, CPAN will do all the rest.

--
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"As a general rule,don't solve puzzles that open portals to Hell"'