Re: Finding good Lua add-ons (Was: Is there an #include equivalent)

[Hisham <h@...>]

On 19 September 2014 13:22, Dirk Laurie <dirk.laurie@gmail.com> wrote:
> Finally, on the Tools section of the Downloads page there is the
> modest sentence "See also the Lua Toolbox." Finally one strikes
> gold. The entire page, maintained by Pierre Chapuis, consists of
> entries like this:
>
> luafilesystem
> File System Library for the Lua Programming Language
> Endorsed by: moteus, develCuy, Hisham and 15 others.
> Labels: filesystem
>
> Name of module, what it does, who think it is good, and in some
> cases, a label directing you to a section where only the modules
> with that label are listed.

I've plugged http://lua-toolbox.com (it's always good to provide a
link!) here on this list many times! It's a great initiative by Pierre
Chapuis, who gave a talk on the Lua ecosystem at the Lua Workshop
2013. People need to know about it, and contribute to it! I think it's
an essential effort for the community. It fetches modules straight
from MoonRocks — http://rocks.moonscript.org — so once someone
contributes something there, it shows up in the toolbox. If you're a
module author or user, log into the Toolbox and click "Endorse" on
every module you like! Let us all know what modules are useful, so we
can find out what is popular.

Both sites are open source, by the way:
https://github.com/catwell/lua-toolbox/
https://github.com/leafo/moonrocks-site
(In fact, I'd love to see them eventually merge!)

> I'll have to work on the fact that I'm nowhere listed as someone
> who endorsed a module — neither are certain other equally loud
> denizens of lua-l. There's a SignUp box ready for us to use.

And I _still_ don't see your endorsements there! Come on, sign up and
help us out already! :)

> It is not stated what one must to to avoid merely being grouped
> among "and 15 others" but I suspect that endorsing enough
> modules will do it.

I haven't checked the source, but as far as I can tell, it's random.
Just refresh the page and you'll get three other people listed there.

I think it's nice that this message was just posted, as I had just
visited the Lua Toolbox earlier today and was happy to see the both
catalog and list of endorsements growing. Having just returned from
the Lua Workshop 2014 in Moscow, I must say that my perception is that
the Lua ecosystem has improved over the last year. Last year we've had
presentations talking about the need of having us move in the same
direction. This year we've had presentations showcasing successful
projects that are already using the ecosystem infrastructure, simply
mentioning things like LuaRocks in passing as they're using it as a
tool to solve their problems, without much fuss. The slow-but-sure
growth of projects such as MoonRocks and the Lua Toolbox are good
indicators of this positive trend!

-- Hisham