Re: [mildly OT] Some info about Python

[Dibyendu Majumdar <mobile@...>]

> I may be wrong, but I think the main problem is that several libraries
> are just not being maintained. Usually, it is not that hard to adapt
> a library to different Lua versions. I agree that sometimes is not
> easy, but I don't think that is the main issue. Just in case, I
> volunteer to help any maintainer who are having technical problems
> in updating a library to a new Lua version.
>

In my efforts I found the effort goes into following areas:

a) Library may have been written with LuaJIT in mind, hence dependency
on LuaJIT's ffi. The Torch libraries are an example of this. I have
been removing the ffi dependency gradually.
b) Library is not portable - assumes Posix or Linux environment. Again
with Torch libraries this was an issue - I had to fix the libraries to
work on Windows.
c) Library may be relying on LuaJIT's bit library - e.g. dynasm.
d) Diversity of build systems - in my view having something like CMake
makes it easier to maintain the library across common platforms.
e) Unmaintained with regards to Lua versions - i.e. library was never
updated to work with 5.3. The question is whether the library is
useful enough to put the effort in upgrading it.

The harder problems are duplication in functionality and overlap.
The worst example of this are the testing libraries - everyone seems
to use their own favourite. So then you have a dependency on a
multitude of testing frameworks, some of which are quite large and
complex.

Anyway, one of the fundamental questions is what platforms should be
supported. I have taken the view that at least 64-bit Windows, Linux
and Mac OSX must be supported.

Regards
Dibyendu