[ANN] stdlib release 5

[Reuben Thomas <rrt@...>]

I'm happy to announce a new release of my standard Lua libraries. It's been 
nearly a year since the last release, and I'm happy to say that since then 
only one bug has been found (thanks Roberto!). Two functions have been added 
in this release, to deal with file paths, and one removed (io.length, which 
is handled by lfs.attributes) along with one constant (INTEGER_BITS, handled 
by bitlib's bit.bits).

As ever, comments and new code are welcomed.

http://luaforge.net/projects/stdlib/

For those not familiar with stdlib, it's a pure-Lua library of mostly 
fundamental data structures and algorithms, in particular support for 
functional and object-oriented programming, string and regex operations and 
extensible pretty printing of data structures. More specific modules include 
a getopt implementation, a generalised least common subsequences (i.e. 
diff algorithm) implementation, a recursive-descent parser generator, and an 
mbox parser.

It's quite a mixed bag, but almost all written for real projects. It's 
written in a doc-string-ish style with the supplied very simple ldoc tool.

I am happy with this code base, but there are various things it could use:

0. Tests. Tests. Tests. The code has no unit tests. It so needs them.

1. More code. Nothing too specialised (unless it's too small to be released 
on its own, although very little seems "too small" in the Lua community). 
Anything that either has widespread applicability (like getopt) or is very 
general (data structures, algorithms, design patterns) is good.

2. Refactoring. The code is not ideally factored. At the moment it is 
divided into modules that extend existing libraries, and new modules 
constructed along similar lines, but I think that some of the divisions are 
confusing. For example, the functional programming support is spread between 
the list and base modules, and would probably be better in its own module, 
as those who aren't interested in the functional style won't want the 
functional list support or the higher-order functions support, and those who 
want one will probably want the other.

3. Documentation work. There's not a long wrong with the existing 
documentation, but it would be nice, now that there is a stable LuaDoc, to 
use that instead of the built-in ldoc, which I'm happy to discard now that 
LuaDoc is stable. ldoc was always designed as a minimal LuaDoc substitute in 
any case.

4. Maintenance and advocacy. For a while I have been reducing my work on 
Lua, and am also now reducing my work in Lua. If anyone would like to take 
on stdlib, please talk to me. It fills a much-needed function: I suspect a 
lot of Lua programmers have invented the wheels with which it is filled over 
and over again. In particular, many programmers could benefit from the 
simplicity of its simple and well-designed functional, string and regex 
capabilities, and others will love its comprehensive getopt.

--
http://rrt.sc3d.org/ | wet nurse, n.  lactating lackey