Re: [Proposal] Simplified Lua Reference

[Robert Burke <sharpobject@...>]

It is troubling that by default, when searching the web for "how do I
do a thing in lua" you are likely to end up on a wiki page that hosts
a debate about how to implement the thing, a collection of
implementations, and criticisms of ways in which those implementations
do not work as expected. Often it would be nicer to end up on the
reference manual or on some resource that provides an implementation
and clearly explains what versions of Lua it works under and what
behavior it has for various cases.

I worry a little that a living collaborative resource would suffer a
similar fate.

On Tue, Sep 22, 2020 at 4:31 AM Paul Merrell <marbux@gmail.com> wrote:
>
> What I've suggested in the past is another version of the Reference
> Manual with, e.g., one section per page, with a commenting system such
> that people could post links to wiki pages, example code, concise
> tutorials, etc.
>
> Longer tutorials that are an introduction for beginners never seem to
> get finished. I've run across five or so on the web that just sit
> there, great beginnings all but all neglected afterward.
>
> I couldn't agree more that there is a void here that needs to be
> filled. Learning to program with Lua is a pain in the bohunkus if you
> don't come to the language with programming skills.
>
> There seems to be an attitude on the list that skilled programmers'
> documentation needs must be met but that there is no need to help
> those learn to use Lua who lack programming skills. Not meaning to
> offend, but it comes across as an elitist attitude, that Lua need not
> be user-friendly for the uninitiated.
>
> My 2 cents.
>
> Best regards,
>
> Paul
>
> --
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