Why isn't hte Lua module system written mostly in Lua?

[Matt Campbell <mattcampbell@...>]

It seems to me that C is not the best implementation language for most 
of the module system.  Sure, loadlib needs to be written in C, but the 
rest can be done in Lua, and I think it should be.  After all, 
Compat-5.1 is written mostly in Lua.  For that matter, perhaps 
Compat-5.1 itself should have been incorporated into Lua as the standard 
module system.

So why is the standard Lua module system written entirely in C?  Is it 
because the Lua developers didn't want to include something like bin2c 
in the Lua build process?  If so, I think it's more important to use a 
succinct language wherever possible.  Or is there a deeper problem with 
writing parts of the Lua standard library in Lua itself?

Matt