The problems using Lua on Windows start with third-party libraries and the Linux-inspired distribution formats. Unlike most library developers, Roberto's team have done an excellent job making Lua sources compile without change just about anywhere C is spoken.
Date: Wed, 17 May 2017 00:12:10 -0700
From: Russell Haley <russ.haley@gmail.com>
Subject: Re: [ANN] Windows MSI Installer for PUC-Lua - Proof Of
Concept
So I'm starting to see the complications now. The 64 bit binary "just
works" on Window 10, but the 32 bit seems to still require mingw
(Error message "The program can't start because libgcc_s_dw2-1.dll is
missing from your computer"). Using various VCRedist packages
(2008,2010,2017) against joefds' binaries wasn't effective (had to
try). I could look at linking the mingw installer into my PUC-Lua
installer or ...
The other possibility is to try Visual Studio 2017. From what I can
tell the VS 2015 and 2017 release includes the C library support that
made mingw a requirement (if you trust a C# developers understanding
of C libraries!). That means I could set up a VC++ project to compile
Lua and link in the installer and add the merge module to create a
single MSI tool (I think). WIX is designed to integrate with Visual
Studio (2015 release at least) so potentially a single Solution file
could be created (and shared). If you wanted to open up Lua to Windows
developers, I think this may be an optimal route.
Well, VS Community Edition is a "free" version of a paid for product
but I think this is moving into "paid-for" land. I'll still try not to
hurt any small animals while compiling, though. If anyone has already
been down this path, I'd love to here from you.
Okay, take two...
Russ
