Re: Lua 5.3 work1 Considering math.isinteger or type()

[Philipp Janda <siffiejoe@...>]

Am 19.07.2013 10:00 schröbte Pierre Chapuis:
> > Well, my suggestion of sticking debug.subtype() inside type() was
> > meant to sidestep the issue of where to put it, while keeping the API
> > function count low. I'm not strongly advocating it, just contributing
>
> For what it's worth, I agree with that idea.
> I really don't like the idea of putting subtype() in debug.

I'm fine with `debug.subtype`, although I probably would call it 
`debug.type`, just like `debug.setmetatable` provides a superset of 
functionality compared to plain `setmetatable`.

But do we need that function at all? Are there any use cases where you 
want to know the actual subtype of functions or userdata in Lua code, or 
is this just for the sake of completeness?

At the moment, my preferred solution would be math.type (like io.type, 
lpeg.type, etc.):
*   no new global variables
*   no new names
*   no unfamiliar calling conventions
*   if people remove debug functions, they probably won't make an 
exception for harmless functions like (sub)type
*   the only reason to remove `math` is if you don't have floats in 
which case this function becomes obsolete anyway

Philipp