Re: Selenophobia

["szbnwer@..." <szbnwer@...>]

imo for newbies mostly it would be enough to suggest a good way
forward. pil is a good entrance, but for free, you can get it only for
5.0, and people have no idea, that only a few bits differs in newer
versions, and those are in the refman. it's also not really good in
open source world to pay for start something (for current pil) when
ppl don't even have any idea if they will be happy with it or not, and
i think those will pay, who already have some love for anything in the
world of free stuffs. i'm not familiar with other beginners' guides
anyway...

lua-users is a great resource, it's well organized, but seems creepy,
as there are so much things around but seems like random snippets, and
things with different versions, and one can think, that they won't
have a usable set for their need, and the half of those stuffs will be
unusable, because they wanna use 5.3, and 1-2 modules are for previous
versions, while it's kinda very easy to port smaller lua modules.

it would be also good to make suggestions and comparisons for those
things, where are more possibilities, and this is the case for a lotsa
things. possibly people will find 1st luarocks, where is harder to get
info about a topic (not a product), than on lua-users.

lua can have so many styles, and maybe one would wish to have a
homogeneous final app. (but this is not only for lua, but 4eg haskell
and python are 'worse', and we can say, that freedom in variations
that you can use, are meaning more stuffs to study, because if u
won't, then someone else will use those available other forms, and
then ull need to understand those just as well).

maybe people can think no batteries means, that they don't exists, and
they need to fabricate them, but not just not included.

the c side can be creepy for the 1st sight (and the 2nd :D ), and i
still only read things about it, but never played with it, as it's
used in modules i'm using, but i prefer ffi in luajit.

luajit, which have kinda big fame, have dragons inside, have no much
wording around it (even if enough, straight and understandable), so
this can also make people fear of a brilliant stuff, that's so easy to
make use of it.

i think the most critical part possibly can be an excellent graphical
library, as now there are things like icu, where u have much good
things, that you can use, but afaik only in c (if you don't lift it
into lua);
tekui, which i really like so much, but there are so much tiny needs
all around it, and it takes much time to understand it's ecosystem,
and you have to dig deep for a good understanding;
löve, which have sound and expert graphics, but it's not about having
ui elements, and in c++;
wx, which is also c++;
and that's possibly not desirable, not only for me; and others have
also their downsides, but i think people can choose one for their
needs, just it's not an easy ride either way.

it's just feels like there's no really a true good choice, and maybe
this can be the feeling of newbies just all around the available
modules, even if those are fine, just they would need some guidance.

gui was the main reason ive left python back in time, even if i'm
truly happy with tekui, as it will serve well all my needs for deep
customization, without being endless, and hard to manipulate, and
extremely flexible, but it's not newbie friendly. ok, i was a newbie,
but i have long past in programming, and much concrete goals, so i
knew well what i need, i came as i have time for learn, and i came as
i've searched for specific needs.

then i've found a new love, and still feelin like i'm on the right
place. :) but for other newbies here, as lua is not really popular,
they can think they won't get help, like if they would use web stuffs,
c# or python, like those normal folks around. :D possibly they won't
even find the best entrances and resources, but i think a good
experienced programmer should.



TL;DR:

i think people would need some strong straightforward guidance. i
think those will come, who got rid of something else, and searching
for something better, and then see a lotsa good points for lua, which
are really here, and could get the effort to promote lua by get those
all together in shortest forms as possible with links for their longer
versions (so still well structured and overviewable, but there's every
info, that one would like to see).

and i think the world of lua is good enough, but the reasons should be
highlighted, as strengths, and the best practices for operations
should be collected, even if mostly all the right materies are already
out there, but could be organized better. - this is a general downside
for intellectual properties, that they are making more and more words
about things, and not letting to just merge them (such a cruel world).