Re: pairs(t, skey) and ipairs(t, skey)

[Francisco Olarte <folarte@...>]

Hi

On Wed, Oct 2, 2013 at 2:16 AM, Tim Hill <drtimhill@gmail.com> wrote:

> .. and I know I'll get shot down for saying it again, but I still feel the lack of an efficient way to determine if a table t is a sequence is a significant hole in the language/runtime.

You are not alone. For me lua tables are dictionaries with some cute
ways of using them with integer keys. To make sizeable programs I need
list support ( it's MY problem, not Lua's problem ). I find two show
stoppers when trying to program in Lua. One is no lists, the other is
the assigning nil for removal ( when nil is a proper value which can
be perfectly set in a local var and tested against ). I would love to
have something like python or perl ( arrays for lists, hashes for
dictionaries, a function/ method  for removing keys / array indexes,
nil is a valid value ( although it can be the same as the return value
for a non existant key ). Meanwhile, I'll use lua for embeding in
programs, for configuration, and for lots of small things, for which
it's great, but I do not think I'll use it as a main language for big
projects ( as stated above, this is just my problem. Craftsmen must
use the apropiate tool for the job ).

Francisco Olarte.