RE: ANNOUNCE: Grunt - Lua Shell Scripting for Windows

["John Hind" <john.hind@...>]

Thanks!

There are no changes to Lua core, it is built against the standard Windows
lua5.1.lib file and uses only the official API. I've not used the
command-line code in lua.c at all, I am using Lua as an embedded language in
my own program (grunt.exe). The only big change I made was to omit the
"table" library altogether and replace it with my own object oriented
system. However this is purely to conserve code size, loading the table
library from a DLL would not be a problem (in fact I probably should ship a
table.DLL in case anyone wants to run another library which requires it in
the Grunt runtime).

I could have done the Windows Shell extensions as a library to be run under
lua.exe, but one goal was to have a simple one-file plus script "xcopy
install" with a very small and self contained exe file, but with a graphical
UI. The file is under 500KB and it requires absolutely no run-time support
beyond the Windows OS. This was achieved using ATL and WTL libraries in VC5
and allows it to be easily installed on a USB Thumb Drive or even a floppy
disk.

b.t.w the source code is now posted if you want to have a look.

-----Original Message-----
From: lua-bounces@bazar2.conectiva.com.br
[mailto:lua-bounces@bazar2.conectiva.com.br] On Behalf Of steve donovan
Sent: 17 February 2009 15:01
To: Lua list
Subject: Re: ANNOUNCE: Grunt - Lua Shell Scripting for Windows

Very cool stuff!  What changes have been made to the Lua core, apart
from the command-line handling defaults and the included libraries?

One easy approach to including in LfW would be for you to separate out
the libraries into grunt.dll, and then drive it using the standard Lua
executable.  Otherwise, it gets sort of hard to explain why there is
_another_ Lua executable in the distribution.

steve d.


On Mon, Feb 16, 2009 at 6:56 PM, John Hind <john.hind@zen.co.uk> wrote:
> The initial (beta) release of Grunt, a new Lua-based Shell Scripting
System
> for Windows, has been posted on LuaForge. The download includes the
runtime,
> full documentation and some example scripts. Source code will follow
> shortly.
>
> http://luaforge.net/projects/grunt/
>
> Grunt is a scripting system for the Windows Shell based on the Lua
> programming language. In contrast to other scripting systems such as
Windows
> Power Shell, it is based on graphical user interface concepts rather than
a
> command line and it is compact and self-contained. It was designed
> originally for automating Portable Applications on USB Flash Drives and
for
> complex "suction" backup routines on removable disk drives. Headline
> features:
>
> . Fully featured scripting language based on Lua.
>
> . System Tray icon and right-click menu customisable from Lua.
>
> . Ability to start and manage application and command processes.
>
> . File management facilities based on the Shell Object hierarchy.
>
> . Ability to arrange application windows on multiple monitors.
>
> . Support for mount and dismount of removable drives.
>
> . Ability to spawn a secondary script with elevated privileges under
Vista.
>
> . Sophisticated time and date handling with scheduling.
>
> Please provide feedback, bugs etc. on the LuaForge forums for the project.
>
>

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