Re: Lua evolution and C99

[steve donovan <steve.j.donovan@...>]

On Fri, Aug 5, 2011 at 9:40 AM, Lorenzo Donati
<lorenzodonatibz@interfree.it> wrote:
> I was wondering whether "porting" Lua to C99, i.e. using C99 features to
> enhance it, would allow some real advantages over C90.

One big issue is that Microsoft is not interested in C99, preferring
to concentrate on the new C++ standard.

Otherwise, I can't offhand think of what real advantages one gains.
There are syntactical conveniences, and 'inline' being a keyword means
less reliance on macros.

Complex support is cool, but integrating complex numbers efficiently
is a tricky job, probably best left to libraries or specialized
patches like LNUM. Scientific people tend to think of floating-point
numbers as a specialization of complex numbers, but they are the
minority.

steve d.