Re: Lua virtualization

[Alexander Gladysh <agladysh@...>]

On Sat, Sep 25, 2010 at 06:13, David Manura <dm.lua@math2.org> wrote:
> On Fri, Sep 24, 2010 at 4:08 PM, Alexander Gladysh <agladysh@gmail.com> wrote:
>> Any volunteers to bring this wiki page up to date?
>> http://lua-users.org/wiki/LuaVirtualization
>> It still talks about 5.0.2...

> Done.

Thank you!

> Most of it remains the same in 5.1, except that the standard
> library is virtualizable when accessed via method calls, which are
> polymorphic, while function calls typically are not without special
> redefinition.  A couple changes have been made in Lua 5.2 concerning
> __pairs/__ipairs/__len.

Indeed.

> Overall, Lua is not very virtualizable.  It's not like you can,
> without invasive patching, define your own string type and have it be
> used in all the places in the Lua language and C API where native
> strings are used.

Well, if one feels the need for that, he needs to code in Lua for
another six months to get a feeling of the language. Or,
alternatively, use Metalua.

However, the related questions are often raised by newbies, and
updated wiki page would be helpful for explaining things. Thanks
again!

> Neither can abstract the file system (virtual file
> system) without patching places like the I/O that use the C stdio
> [1-2].

This is more easily done by replacing io/os libraries with own
implementations. Still, more like a task for niche programs.

Alexander.