Re: Installining Lua for WinXP

["Aaron Brown" <arundelo@...>]

Alex Caracatsanis wrote:

> I don't really understand how to install it. I've
> downloaded the latest version as lua-5.1.tar.gz, and have
> opened it as:
>
> C:\Program Files\lua-5.1. It has subdirectories called
> doc, etc, src, and test. Am I on the right track so far?
>
> Do I now need to download a C compiler

Yes (or a precompiled binary; see below).

> - and if so, what do i do with it?

Install it and (from your command line) use cd to get
yourself to C:\Program Files\lua-5.1, then type (for
instance) "make ansi".  When that's done running, the Lua
interpreter (lua.exe) should be in the src/ subdirectory.

> What does it mean to "build" the downloaded file?

It's roughly a synonym for "compile".

> Is there some kind of easy install process for newcomers?

Yes, you can download a precompiled binary from:

 http://luabinaries.luaforge.net/

(I think the file you want is one of the Lua_5_1_Win32_*
files from <http://luaforge.net/frs/?group_id=110>.  Other
than the DLLs, it looks like the difference between them is
just what compiler was used to make them, but if one doesn't
work for you, give another a try.)

--
Aaron