Re: All your local are belong to us

[Paul Merrell <marbux@...>]

On Fri, Oct 2, 2015 at 1:57 PM, Gregg Reynolds <dev@mobileink.com> wrote:
>
>>   Every Lua beginner makes the same mistake: using local variables in
>> interactive mode of Lua standalone interpreter.
>
> That's called learning,  and working through it is a valuable  experience.

Point noted. But it's also important to keep in mind that Lua has
users with different proficiency levels. The existing documentation is
great for the proficient but very poor for a newbie with no
programming experience.  For example, the manual says that an ellipsis
("...") is a reserved character but never explains its functionality.
Likewise, the Manual is rife with words and phrases that are commonly
understood by experienced programmers but come across as Klingon to
newbies.

In my mind, the biggest thing that has held Lua back from much wider
adoption is the dearth of documentation for newbies.

I return to my suggestion that we get the documentation into a wiki
that can be annotated with example code, notes, and links.

'Nuff said.

Best regards,

Paul


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