[ANN] LuaRocks 3.0.0beta1 for Unix

[Hisham <h@...>]

Hello list,

I am extremely happy to announce LuaRocks 3.0.0beta1, the
almost-finished package for the new major release of LuaRocks, the Lua
package manager.

***
First of all: "Why beta1?" — the code itself is release-candidate
quality, but I decided to call this one beta1 and not rc1 because the
Windows package is not ready yet, and I wanted to get some early
feedback on the Unix build while I complete the final touches of the
Windows package.

This is NOT going to be a long-or-endless beta cycle: if no major
showstoppers are reported, the final 3.0.0 release, including Unix and
Windows packages, is expected to arrive in one week. But please, if
you want to help out with LuaRocks, give this beta1 a try and report
any findings!
***

Yes, it's finally here! After a way-too-long gestation period,
LuaRocks 3 is about ready to see the light of day. And it includes a
lot of new stuff:

- New rockspec format
- New commands, including `luarocks init` for per-project workflows [1]
- New flags, including `--lua-dir` and `--lua-version` for using
multiple Lua installs with a single LuaRocks
- New build system, gearing towards a new distribution model [2]
- General improvements, including namespaces [3]
- User-visible changes, including some breaking changes
- Internal changes

All of the above are detailed here:

* https://github.com/luarocks/luarocks/blob/master/CHANGELOG.md

I'll try to write up more documentation between now and the final
release. Feedback is wanted regarding what needs to be
documented/explained! And help updating the wiki is especially
welcome.

And without further ado, the tarball for Unix is here:

https://luarocks.github.io/luarocks/releases/luarocks-3.0.0beta1.tar.gz

This release contains new code by Thijs Schreijer, George Roman, Peter
Melnichenko, Kim Alvefur, Alec Larson, Evgeny Shulgin, Michal Cichra,
Daniel Hahler, and myself.

Very special thanks to my employer Kong, for sponsoring my work on
LuaRocks over the last year and making this release possible. Thanks
also to my colleagues Aapo Talvensaari and Enrique García Cota for
helping out with some last-minute testing.

In the name of everyone in the LuaRocks development team, thank you
for the continued amazing support that Lua community has been giving
LuaRocks over the years: keep on rockin'!

Cheers!!!

Hisham Muhammad
-- LuaRocks lead developer
-- https://luarocks.org

[1] https://github.com/luarocks/luarocks/wiki/Project:-LuaRocks-per-project-workflow
[2] https://github.com/luarocks/luarocks/wiki/Project:-LuaRocks-new-distribution-model
[3] https://github.com/luarocks/luarocks/wiki/Namespaces