Re: Lua Foundation?

[Dibyendu Majumdar <mobile@...>]

Hi Andrew,

On 20 April 2017 at 20:08, Andrew Starks <andrew@starksfam.org> wrote:
> On Thu, Apr 20, 2017 at 12:58 Dibyendu Majumdar <mobile@majumdar.org.uk>
> wrote:
>> On 18 April 2017 at 17:53, Andrew Starks <andrew@starksfam.org> wrote:
>> > Has something like the idea of a Lua Foundation ever come up?
>>
>> I think maybe Lua's success / or unique selling point is that it has
>> no foundation, that it is not managed in a big way, and that it lacks
>> a huge set of standard libraries? Because of this someone like me can
>> take it and modify it, and use as I wish. Something like what I am
>> doing with Lua would be out of the question with other 'bigger' and
>> more ambitious languages.
>>
> If the authors of Lua viewed it as a better Python, then they would have
> also seen fit to create or delegate the accoutrements that would be required
> to effectively replace those alternatives. They didn't and so none got made
> and no governance was offered. As a result, it would be ignored by the
> majority of people that currently use it.
>
> To accommodate a potential market that could easily be served by Lua as the
> kernel of an ecosystem, it requires a) someone to be bold enough to code
> whatever software might be required to put Lua in that spot, govern
> participation and evolve all of it as the market changes or b) a group of
> people to decide on a mission and a set of basic principles, prioritize a
> short list of required accomplishments and then divide the work.
>
> I think that would be a good thing for the world of software development
> because I believe that Lua elegantly solves a lot of thorny problems,
> especially in areas of concurrency. In my amateur opinion, Lua adds a great
> deal to computer science.  I wish that more people were exposed to it and
> that when they are exposed, that they wi chose it for their work.
>
> I'd like for that experience to be better for more people because I'm a bit
> of a fan.  :)
>

I think that unlike other languages Lua is unique as it is often
customised by folks using it. Other languages that have foundations
are as far as I know, all very centrally managed, with a single
definition of the language.

The problem as I see it is that with the concept of a foundation -
will this mean only some implementation(s) of Lua will be blessed?
What about LuaJIT or other derivatives?
Secondly - unlike other languages - Lua as a language is solely
controlled by the Lua team. So a foundation that isn't managed by them
doesn't make sense I think.

In my view, it is better to put all efforts behind LuaRocks to help
improve the experience of Lua users.

Regards
Dibyendu