Re: table.unpack question.

[Dirk Laurie <dirk.laurie@...>]

2013/5/25 Pierre-Yves Gérardy <pygy79@gmail.com>:

> So you can't determine it from the Lua side.

I can't agree that "pure Lua" or "the Lua side" means only whatever you
can pass to the Lua executable.

Two quotes from the very start of the Reference Manual.

> Lua is implemented as a library, written in clean C, the common subset
> of Standard C and C++.

Coupled with the prominence of the Lua API in the Manual (treated before
the standard libraries and the executable, this IMHO adds up to:

    Writing a C program that interacts with Lua solely via the official
    C API is no less "pure Lua" than writing it in the scripting language.

> The Lua distribution includes a sample host program called `lua`, which
> uses the Lua library to offer a complete, standalone Lua interpreter,
> for interactive or batch use.

And this says:

    If you want to write your own read-evaluate-print loop, do so; the
    one in the distribution is only a sample.

So: if there is an elegant solution possible by exploiting something in the
official API, I say go for it.