Wiki Structure

wiki

The title of this page, "LuaAddons", is not very descriptive in my opinion, and neither is the description at the top not that on the HomePage. [According to Wikipedia] an "add-on" is more like a plugin, which for a language like Lua would be a module, which is listed on a separate page (LibrariesAndBindings). The emphasis of this particular page seems more to be tools that can be used for Lua development. You might specifically call these [CASE tools]. Most of the content on this page are CASE tools, mainly with the exception of the "Lua distributions" and "documentation" sections. That said, I don't think the documentation section belongs here. To a lesser extent, I don't think the distributions belong either. Note that LuaPowerPatches is partly related to distributions (i.e. patched/modified/custom versions of Lua itself), so some grouping of those pages might be done. Also, I wasn't not sure what "Uses of Lua" were. See also the "Tools" section of LuaDirectory, which maybe belongs here. In summary, I think a better name for this page may be LuaTools?. Or maybe the prefix Lua is redundant? The Python Wiki calls these [DevelopmentTools]. Does the wiki support renaming pages (and adding a redirection), similar to as in Wikipedia? --DavidManura

This page is for indexing "things for Lua users", including libraries, documentation, development tools, and distributions. The "Uses of Lua" section was improperly placed here and I've removed it. "Lua addons" is perhaps not the best term, but the intended meaning is clarified in the first sentence of this page, and it's easier to say than "things for Lua users". --JohnBelmonte

But the page LuaLinks says that this LuaAddons page is "things for Lua" as opposed to "regarding Lua proper". Isn't "things for Lua" different from "things for Lua users"? "Things for Lua users" seems quite broad and would include both add-ons to Lua as well as Lua proper (and perhaps the entire wiki itself, so I don't see how this really classifies anything). If this page is only "things for Lua", then the "Documentation" section above seems more related to Lua proper. --DavidManura.

This is all splitting hairs. Things for Lua are ultimately things for Lua users. Think of these three fuzzily-bounded parts: the contents of this wiki (LuaDirectory), external links regarding Lua proper (LuaLinks), and external links regarding everything else for Lua users (LuaAddons). I think it's spelled out clearly enough in the 3rd paragraph introducing this page. --JohnBelmonte

Ok, that makes more sense: internal links and external links, with the external links partitioned amoung "things about Lua (proper)", "things that use of Lua", and "things that can be used with Lua" (along with derivative forms of Lua). However, wouldn't the "Documentation" links above more appropriately belong in "things about Lua (proper)"? --DavidManura

On the HomePage, how do Featured Pages differ from Starting Points? For example, why is LuaDirectory not a Featured Page? and why is LuaTutorial not a Starting Point? --DavidManura

The starting points provide the major index pages of the wiki and the place to give feedback. These are by definition general and would never be featured pages. --JohnBelmonte

Ok, I see that LuaDirectory contains everything on the wiki (pertaining to Lua) except CastOfCharacters, WikiHelp, and GuestBook. So, Starting Points is itself more like the Main Index/Directory rather than LuaDirectory as I originally thought. Would there be any objection to copying or moving the CastOfCharacters link to the Community section of the LuaDirectory?--DavidManura

"Starting Points" (as termed on the home page) can be interpreted as "new users should read this first" or as "always start navigating from here because this is the top of the directory". The latter is the correct one, but not what I first thought. Perhaps "Directory" would be better than "Starting Points" (where Directory contains LuaDirectory).

Page names that would otherwise be a single word tend to be preceeded by "Lua" if appropriate, and only the first letter of an acronym is capitalized (e.g. LuaFaq not Faq or LuaFAQ). There are exceptions, e.g. LuaPowerPatches and IoLanguage.

I'm wondering if certain pages (e.g. ReadOnlyTables, FuncTables, GettingValuesFromLua, and LuaClassesWithMetatable) belong more in the "Lua Fu" of LuaDirectory rather than SampleCode. I think SampleCode should contain concrete pieces of reusable code (possibly along with discussions of it) rather than design patterns/tutorials. in any case, it seems to much of a hodge-podge of things (coming from a perspective of e.g. cpan) with not enough consistency. --DavidManura.

I agree that ReadOnlyTables and FuncTables would fit better in Lua Fu. LuaClassesWithMetatable a little less so, only because there are a dozen class system designs. GettingValuesFromLua belongs in the "read the Lua manual" category (i.e. it's fine in SampleCode). --JohnBelmonte

I think users.lua.org would make more sense than lua-users.org, though I see this has already been discussed (http://lua-users.org/lists/lua-l/2001-07/msg00208.html) --DavidManura

The Tools and Projects sections of LuaDirectory contain the link to LuaAddons as well as to this selection of pages:

• LuaEditorSupport - syntax highlighting, auto-formatting, etc.
• LuaXml - examples of handling XML in Lua (Lua code and C-bindings to parsers)
• SourceCodeFormatter - may be helpful to format your code for the wiki
• VisualStudioSyntaxCheck - a tool for MS Visual Studio 6.0 to check the syntax of Lua files
• VmMerge - merges Lua source code with VM disassembly
• LuaProfiler - a time profiler for Lua
• PepperfishProfiler - another Lua code profiler completely written in Lua.
• LuaLint - finds typos in variable names
• PlatformSpecific - Platform-specific breakdown of the Lua universe
• AutoConfig - autoconfig macros for lua 5.0 and 5.1

• LuaCheia - wish to make a full-featured language based on Lua that rivals other scripting languages
• SciteScripts - Lua scripts for the SciTE text editor

The above pages topically belong in the LuaAddons, and that's probably where users would think to look and place them. The only difference I see is that the above pages have a life on the wiki rather than on an external site. I don't why this distinction is worth making. In fact, some addons/projects have a dual life: LuaProfiler and LuaCheia are wiki pages listed here, and there are also direct links to the corresponding external sites on LuaAddons. My recommendation would be to move the above wiki pages to LuaAddons and elminate the corresponding direct external links on LuaAddons (the wiki pages provide indirect links to the external pages and allow user commenting). --DavidManura

Isn't LibrariesAndBindings mostly redundant with LuaForge? LuaForge is larger (contains 215 projects), though not all of the projects registered there are modules, and it will likely be more up-to-date (concerning description and Lua version compatibility) and more easily searchable. However, not all Lua projects are registered on LuaForge. Some projects are hybrids: registered on LuaForge but with files stored elsewhere. A few modules are just maintained informally on the wiki in the SampleCode section. I think we need a central place for registering modules. Possibly that should be LuaForge in some way (at least using if for registration if not file storage and commits as well). See also related "CPAN" comments on Lua on my DavidManura page.--DavidManura