Re: require vs dofile and how to organise many functions

[Petite Abeille <petite_abeille@...>]

On Jul 21, 2009, at 10:05 AM, startx wrote:

> i know that require has the advantage to load both pure lua and C
> extentions, but is there any other technical difference i am not aware
> of? (memory management etc)

As mentioned by Steve, require will keep track of what has already  
been loaded.

Take a look at Kepler's 'compat' to get a sense on how to simulate it:

http://luaforge.net/plugins/scmcvs/cvsweb.php/compat/src/?cvsroot=compat

http://luaforge.net/plugins/scmcvs/cvsweb.php/~checkout~/compat/src/ 
compat-5.1.lua?rev=1.22;content-type=text%2Fplain;cvsroot=compat

> or is this just a decision of coding style?

Style and pragmatism. After all, Lua doesn't include many batteries.  
Doesn't hurt to use the few which are provided.

For a contrarian view on module, check David Manura rant:

http://lua-users.org/wiki/LuaModuleFunctionCritiqued

I, for one, welcome our module overlord :)

> would this be considered an inappropriate coding style?

Yes, quite bad taste indeed :P

On the other hand, "des goûts et des couleurs on ne discute pas"...

> i haven't seen this in other projects so far ....

LuaSocket uses such constructs. Always found that sort of packaging  
very cumbersome. Of course, YMMV.

Cheers,

--
PA.
http://alt.textdrive.com/nanoki/