On Thu, Nov 10, 2011 at 10:12, Luiz Henrique de Figueiredo
<lhf@tecgraf.puc-rio.br> wrote:
> I would like to put this very clearly: I am very much against the
> prospect of Lua 5.2 breaking ANY script written for 5.1.
>
> It's just a pain and it changes the impression of Lua being something
> that "just works" to something that "breaks when you upgrade it".
>
> Python has not been the same since the 2/3 rift was introduced. I
> really really really want Lua to avoid this. 5.1 has a huge basis
> which is very important to keep sane and working IMO.
You seem to misunderstand the dynamics of Lua. You never just upgrade Lua,
you consider if the new Lua is good for your needs and then adapt to it.
Lua is not like Firefox...
You can keep whatever version of Lua is suitable for your needs *forever*.
Just freeze the source code into your project.
Many people have done just that...
Compatibility between different versions of Lua isn't something I have ever worried about. Generally when I build Lua into a project, the version of Lua used by that product remains static for the lifetime of the product. The only time I consider upgrading to a newer Lua version is if there is some overriding advantage to doing so. By this criteria I have never considered "staying current" to be an overriding reason.
It isn't like there is a large body of Lua code which can be used in a multitude of projects. I currently have 4 projects that use Lua 5.1, and the scripts are NOT, at all, compatible between them. This is because each project uses Lua in a completely different context. And it's that flexibility that makes Lua so brilliantly useful.
