The LuaVM implemented in languages other than C

[Anthony Fairchild <fairchild.anthony@...>]

Hello All,

I've been playing around with the idea of implementing a Lisp-like language that targets the LuaVM.   The reasons why I chose the Lua VM are 1) It seems to be faster than several other VMs and 2) The VM has a very minimalistic approach, which makes it very easy to implement.   I want my language to run on several platforms that do not support C code, including rich web clients like Flash and Silverlight and game development environments like XNA.   I really like the idea of a language being built up from a small core which can be easily implemented anywhere it is not supported.

I have started a VM implementation in C#, and it passes many lua unit tests at this point.  I can compile lua files using luac and run them in both Silverlight and XNA.   I have really only spent a couple of days doing this and I'm surprised at how straightforward this is.  Setting my Lisp language idea aside, I was wondering if this VM might be of any value to others, as an alternative way to run Lua code in .NET?  I see there is LuaInterface but that doesnt seem to support my requirements because it is  a bridge to Lua's C VM.

I will probably end up writing a native action script Lua VM as well so I can easily develop games that work in both silverlight and flash.  Either that or I could use Lua-Alchemy but I am curious about how a native action script VM would perform against the c->llvm solution that alchemy is using.

Any thoughts on this are appreciated.

Anthony