Re: Has Lua reached perfection?

[Paige DePol <lual@...>]

Dibyendu Majumdar <mobile@majumdar.org.uk> wrote:

> I know that some of the folks on this list do not think so as is
> evident from the continuous stream of feature requests. But I can't
> think of any feature that I would want added to Lua 5.3 that would
> justify breaking backward compatibility. There are some things that I
> wish were different about Lua - e.g. I wish that variables were local
> by default, or that arrays and hash maps were distinct types, but I
> would not want such changes if it meant breaking existing code.

One of my goals with Lua++ is to allow fully backwards compatible parsing
of Lua code, which will be placed fully in a namespace. If the backwards
compatibility is not necessary then it can be compiled without that support,
much as Lua does for it's own compatibility. Other than adding new features
to the language I have tried to keep the existing syntax as compatible as
possible, however, my parser will have two modes available when parsing
source code; Lua mode and Lua++ mode as there are some syntax differences.

I think that no matter which features Team Lua adds to the language there
will always be other features that people would like to see added.
Or, features that are added that some see as "bloat" and unnecessary for
the core of the language. As the saying goes; you can please some of the
people some of the time, but not all of the people all of the time.


> It takes good taste and years of effort to create a language such as
> Lua. Despite some 'warts' overall Lua 5.3 appears to have reached a
> state of perfection (or maturity) in my view.

Lua is quite widely used in a number of places that I have seen online.
Quite frequently just used as is, sometimes with additions and changes
to promote interoperability. I don't think it may be fully realised just
how much Lua really is used out there "in the wild". I am always happy
when I find another instance where Lua is used. Team Lua should be very
proud of the language they have created.

~Paige