RE: Lua Distributions and Package Management

[Thijs Schreijer <thijs@...>]

> I'm curious to know what the Windows compiler usage/breakdown is. My sense
> from this list is that many use mingw et al. I don't and I imagine that
> most people that are developing *for* Windows use VS.

Myself, I develop using VS. Once it does what I want, I fix it to work with MinGW to get rid of the MSVCxxx issues while using LuaRocks builtin mode as a 'make' equivalent. Next step is making it run on a linux box, still relying on LuaRocks for building.

> Imagine you're using some binary distro of Lua. You want to use something
> that is only in source. You don't normally use C compilers and you're not
> a *nix guy. So, you'll be downloading the free version of VS. Then you
> find that your binaries require one of two different unix wrappers (not
> completely compatible, either). "Crap. Now I need to install Linux?" (I
> know... But that's the impression people are left with)

For windows users this is by far the biggest issue I think. When getting started I just copy pasted stuff from LfW into separate directories to create a sort of standalone apps/scripts. I think it took me about two years to get me to install MinGW and try to compile from source. LuaRocks was a complete turnoff because it just failed in LfW and it couldn't (still can't) be upgraded.

For the average windows user without a unix background, it just has a near vertical learning curve.

Thijs