Local Function Forward Declarations

[Mark Gabby <mwgabby@...>]

Currently, it's possible to forward-declare a local function in Lua like so:

local forward_declared_function

local function calling_function()
    print "calling function"
    forward_declared_function()




end

forward_declared_function = function()
    print "forward declared function"
end

This looks kinda ugly, though. I'd like it better if Lua supported this:

local forward_declared_function




local function calling_function()
    print "calling function"
    forward_declared_function()
end

local function forward_declared_function()
    print "forward declared function"




end

With Lua 5.2.1, if you call calling_function() after defining the first, it prints:
calling function
forward declared function

but if you call it after the second, it prints, then fails:

calling function


lua: debug.lua:26: attempt to call upvalue 'forward_declared_function' (a nil value)
stack traceback:
    debug.lua:26: in function 'calling_function'
    debug.lua:33: in main chunk
    [C]: in ?

Why does the first work, but not the second?