Re: Dead Batteries

[Steve Litt <slitt@...>]

On Thu, 19 Dec 2019 12:14:12 +0100
Italo Maia <italo.maia@gmail.com> wrote:

> Javis:
> https://benchmarksgame-team.pages.debian.net/benchmarksgame/fastest/lua-python3.html
> Other benchmarks have similar results. Memory consumption might also
> be an issue.
> 
> Personally, the batteries are not very important if the common
> libraries one might need are easy to find/pick.

I think you put your finger on the issue, Italo. One needs to:

1) Find the library
2) Pick the library
3) Install the library

#2 involves, for each candidate library for a given task:
	a) install the library
	b) learn the library
	c) experiment with the library
	d) unless the library turns out to be the best:
		Discard all that effort

#3 requires either my distro package the library, or I use luarocks,
which I don't normally like to do (no more than I like Ruby gems,
Python pip or Perl CPAN). Worse yet, #3 requires me to explain, to
prospective users of my programs using the library, how to install the
dependency on *their* computer, and a lot of times because dependencies
have dependencies, that doesn't work.

Contrast this to Python, which has a curated set of complete, tested
and documented standard libraries, effectively meaning that almost any
project you start in Python can be finished in Python using just the
standard library.

Of course, in the case of Lua the standard library must be in a
different package to Lua itself, to facilitate tiny embedded programs.
This doesn't mean Lua can't have a curated standard library, separately
installed, and hopefully packaged by the distros.

Lua is by far the best *language* I've ever used. However, due to lack
of a curated and up-to-date standard library, it's not the most likely
to produce a successful result in a computer application as opposed to
an embedded program.

A good starting point would be an official list of approved Lua
libraries, with a search function, that tells the strengths of each
library. That would be a great improvement over having to ask online
and getting lots of opinions.

Thanks,

SteveT

Steve Litt 
December 2019 featured book: Rapid Learning for the 21st Century
http://www.troubleshooters.com/rl21