Re: [ANN] Lua 5.3.0 (alpha) now available

[Andrew Starks <andrew.starks@...>]

On Thursday, July 31, 2014, Luiz Henrique de Figueiredo <lhf@tecgraf.puc-rio.br> wrote:
> Lua 5.3.0 (alpha) is now available for testing at
>         http://www.lua.org/work/lua-5.3.0-alpha.tar.gz
>
> MD5     2922a0c3b64c8a2f678d2510b7a5a336  -
> SHA1    b2f86c16a38310c9e240c70216618308097444f6  -
>
> This is an alpha version. Some details may change in the final version.
>
> The main change in Lua 5.3.0 is the introduction of integers. See also
>         http://www.lua.org/work/doc/#changes
>
> The complete diffs are available at
>         http://www.lua.org/work/diffs-lua-5.3.0-work3-alpha.txt
>
> All feedback welcome. Thanks.
> --lhf

I'm hoping there are plans for a short paper, which might shed light on some of the choices made for 5.3. I don't suggest that any choices stand out as "bad." Rather, some functions suggest a workflow that is not immediately obvious to me. 

Specifically, the debug.Csize, integer and float packing functions; there usage is clear, but I'd be interested to know about the thinking around including these sorts of tools, absent a lua-side buffer type. Most of these are in the string library. The cost/benefit must have tilted toward strings. It'd be interesting to know more about that genral topic, even if that specific issue turns out to be "not interesting."  

Then there are the answers to questions I hadn't thought of, which are usually more interesting...

-Andrew