Re: Portable binary distribution of Lua 5.3.3 (32bit on Windows 10) with some batteries

[Andrew Starks <andrew@...>]

On Tue, Jul 26, 2016 at 10:45 AM, Coda Highland <chighland@gmail.com> wrote:
> On Tue, Jul 26, 2016 at 8:40 AM, John Hind <john.hind@zen.co.uk> wrote:
>>> | On Tue, Jul 26, 2016 at 10:11 AM, Pavel Drotar <gmc1@azet.sk> wrote:
>>> | > People in this mailing list are able to talk whole days about missing
>>> | "continue" command or stupid holes in tables?
>>> |
>>> | Man, it bothers me too. It isn't representative of most happy users of
>> the
>>> | language, but the question is, how do people get over the difficulties
>> to
>>> | become happy users?
>>
>> I think you both misread this: people obsess about the tiny imperfections in
>> Lua precisely because they are very happy users. It is because Lua is
>> already so very good that people think it has a shot at perfection.
>> Personally I would never bother to contribute to a discussion about
>> improving JavaScript because it is such a steaming mess that I would not
>> know where to start. Only Forth is worse, and it at least is interestingly
>> bad!
>>
>
> This. Those tiny imperfections are the things that very happy users
> see as the only major obstacles (besides marketing) preventing other
> developers from also becoming very happy users. The stuff that gets
> the most discussion is the stuff that pretty much everyone will bump
> their head on at some point, and the idea that fixing those little
> things could result in a flawless jewel of a language is ever so
> tantalizing.
>
> /s/ Adam
>

I have the same notion: for what Lua is, it may be close to perfect.

If you're a football fan, you can stand in front of your television
and scream advice to your favorite team. On this list, anyone who
knows how to operate a computer can decide to try their hand at
language design and offer up extensions, complete with implementation
advice, to people with doctorates.

Meanwhile, most developers that I know hate it when their manager
comes in with half-baked solutions to problems that they're paid to
solve.

My complaint is that we (the segment of the internet that hangs out
here) have a habit forget that sharing experience and real problems
are helpful and advice is only accepted when it is sparingly,
carefully and humbly given. It's easy to understand why it happens:
people are often passionate, want their ideas to be valued and to be
thought of as competent and creative. Unfortunately, it also displays
a lack of empathy that works against making the language better and
the conversations less grinding.


-- 
Andrew Starks