Re: [ANN] Lua 5.2.0 (rc3) now available

[Alexander Gladysh <agladysh@...>]

On Thu, Dec 1, 2011 at 01:03, Alexander Gladysh <agladysh@gmail.com> wrote:
> On Wed, Nov 30, 2011 at 15:24, Patrick Rapin <toupie300@gmail.com> wrote:

>> Lua 5.1.4  Copyright (C) 1994-2008 Lua.org, PUC-Rio
>>> return string.format("%d", 2.5)
>> 2
>> Lua 5.2.0  Copyright (C) 1994-2011 Lua.org, PUC-Rio
>>> return string.format("%d", 2.5)
>> stdin:1: bad argument #2 to 'format' (not an integer in proper range)
>> stack traceback:
>>        [C]: in function 'format'
>>        stdin:1: in main chunk
>>        [C]: in ?

> For me this issue looks as yet another reason not to think about
> upgrading our existing extensive codebase to 5.2. Such small
> undocumented breaking changes — especially if there are more of them,
> and I'm sure there are — will give us a hard time upgrading,
> especially without 100% coverage tests.
>
> But without breaking changes there is no progress. So, I welcome Lua
> 5.2 as it is (or would be). :-)
>
> I guess, we will treat it as a separate incompatible language for a
> while, that's all...

Just in case if this sounds too sour — it is not. I did not want to
rant (except maybe on documentation completeness :-) ).

Yes, we can't use Lua 5.2 here with our existing code, so what? We're
happy with 5.1, and it is not going anywhere soon. For us that is
until Mike stops supporting it in LuaJIT... well or until majority of
module developers stop supporting it. I don't see this happening in
the next year or two.

Anyway, when time to switch will come for us, we would have LuaJIT
support for 5.2 (without this I don't see how majority of module
developers will leave 5.1...). And LuaJIT is the main culprit.
Everything else is more or less question of some code rewrites and
extensive testing.

And for the Lua community at large, any Lua release is good, I think.
And I feel that 5.2 is mostly for the better, despite some of my
personal dislikes (which are personal), most of them, I suppose, are
from being conservative and too used to "good old" familiar stuff.

So, I personally, will celebrate 5.2 release when it will happen, and
will drink a toast to Lua team on the next occasion. :-)

Alexander.