RE: using light userdata to keep full userdata alive?

["Jerome Vuarand" <jerome.vuarand@...>]

Norman Ramsey wrote:
> The only way I can think of to do this is to use a weak table in
> which both keys and values are weak and the light userdata is the
> key, the heavy userdata is the value.  Is this the correct approach?
> Are there other possible approaches?  

I think that won't work. Light userdata are simple values like numbers
and booleans, they are stored directly in tables, not by reference. Thus
the light userdata as a weak key will make the value associated (the
full userdata) immediately collectable.

AFAIK the only way to handle your situation is to pass around the full
big userdata (which is handle by reference, so it's just a pointer
passed around), or eventually a smaller (but still full) userdata which
contains only the array pointer. In that case you have to link the big
and small (full) userdatas in some way (with a weak table or the
metatable/environment mechanisms).