Re: C API question

[Greg Falcon <veloso@...>]

On Wed, Jan 12, 2011 at 6:59 AM, liam mail <liam.list@googlemail.com> wrote:
> That is quite correct Roberto, the user is a programmer and one that counts
> from zero.

What an off-topic observation, delivered in such a flippant way.
Maybe I'm reading a tone into your message that isn't there, but why
has the mailing list felt so angry lately?

Lua has two constituencies that must be considered in the design: the
developers who are embedding it into their applications, and the
(possibly non-programmer) end users of those applications.  It's
obvious that 1-based arrays are a concession for the latter group,
while the Lua C API is purely a concern of the former.

> If you feel these problems should be brought to the wider audience and
> documented then maybe they should rather than, as it seems to me, implying
> to a programer that they can not be trusted and should have their toys
> removed from them like a child.

The point is that there are better ways to do what the reference
system does, so why not take it out, simplifying Lua and encouraging
the better usage patterns at the same time?  If you feel like a child
whose toy is being taken away, you could always reimplement the
reference system for your own use.  It's straightforward enough.  Or
just continue using Lua 5.1: it's perfectly fine, nobody is taking it
away from you, and it will continue to work after 5.2 is released.

Greg F