Re: Making Lua accessible to everyone

Hi Sorn,

TLDR: I support you. I think LHF and Roberto (lua.org) are wise to stay at arms length and have seen this entire scenario play (fizzle) out many times before. I've seen similar discussions 3 times in my short life on this list.

While I enjoy the Lua mailing list, a forum is a great idea IMHO. I think it will open up Lua to many people for searching answers and participating. Why do I think that? Because there are LOTS of mailling lists for Lua in specific areas. Robolx dev forums are a great example of forums at work for Lua. I also think this particular mailing list is very insular due to the nature of Lua. I say this because "desktop scripting language" is only one scenario and the Lua authors (and owners of the mailing list) keep Lua as small and generic as possible. There is a great deal that can be done (and has been done) in the past to make Lua a better desktop solution. Just don't look for support from Lua.org because they will (wisely) not become involved.

As per installing Lua on Windows: I have been working on a Lua Binary distribution called WinLua: http://winlua.net. It uses MSI installers to set up all the proper paths and whatnot. It comes in two flavors currently: Just Lua 5.3 (+ LuaFileSystem) or WinLua Toolchain with compilers and a build system. I am trying to get a new release complete which bundles the latest LLVM Compiler (11) with LuaRocks, Lua 5.4 and a Lua build system (xmake). There is currently an existing functional BETA of "WinLua Toolchain" that uses LLVM 10. I am also working on a small compiler that is designed just for use with LuaRocks for people that want great C modules but don't care about writing C; I currently have it down to 200 MB with a compiler, Luarocks (3.0.3) and Lua 5.3.

See you on the forums!

Russ

On Thu, Nov 12, 2020 at 6:23 AM Sorn Županić Maksumić <maksumic.sorn@gmail.com> wrote:

Hi! I’m Sorn Maksumic. The reason I'm sending this email is that I want to make Lua accessible to everyone, especially beginners. If you’re interested, please continue to read.

Beginners are most likely not going to join this mailing list. They’re just not. Especially those who are new to programming in general. As you already know, Lua is used a lot in game development and mods, which makes it the first programming language for many. Maybe it was one of your first programming languages too? It was mine, I got introduced to Lua through Open Tibia (a game).

To continue, at least 90% of the traffic LuaForum.com is getting is from beginners searching “Lua Forum”, because they need help. The forum has great SEO (mainly because of the domain name) and the forum always appears on the first page on Google. But, it’s no use in having great SEO if there is no one around to help the beginners, right?

Most of the traffic is coming from this question: How to install Lua on Windows?

Further, technical documentation really scares beginners. Forum posts are much more welcoming and it allows beginners to reply and ask questions when something is unclear. This is not possible in the reference manual. It would be great to see what beginners are struggling to grasp. Once a question has been answered, it doesn’t have to be answered again.

It can also be a place for experts to share ideas (such as Space/Time Duality by Gavin). This also helps beginners to see good coding practice and style. The space/time duality article is probably the best programming article I’ve ever read.

The things you post on LuaForum.com will never be deleted. Running a forum is really cheap, and I have no problem sponsoring it myself; everything is already prepaid until 2025.

To summarize, why join Lua Forum?
People new to programming are most likely not going to join a mailing list
The forum has great SEO and it’s the first place many beginners look for help
Technical documentation can be scary and there's no way to ask a question
Experts can share good coding practice and style
Posts will never be deleted

I hope you join, but no pressure if you don't. It's up to you.

Thank you for reading,
Sorn