Re: Lua for Stand Alone Apps

["Stephen Adam" <saadam@...>]

----- Original Message ----- 
From: Markus Huber <pulse@evolution.org>

> True. But Lua seems to be so small, powerfull and fast, that its also a
> real choice for stand alone programms. I need a language wich has all
> the benefits like fast development, simple to understand, clever syntax,
> portable and so on - I am so happy to find Lua.

    Then perhaps you'll agree with an idea that I've had for some time...
It seems to me that there are a large number of relatively simple tasks
that don't require the power and complexity of a `professional'
development system.  If you're a programmer and you already have
such a system, then it makes sense to use it to write simple programs
to fill simple needs.

    But I'd like to see a small system suitable for developing small
windows programs.  Perhaps someone already knows of such a
system?  The kind of thing I have in mind would be like a small
application with a set of Windows system calls available to LUA,
and perhaps a simple database, sockets perhaps...  Nothing too
complex or advanced.

    LUA's associative arrays would be an excellent way to get
records from a simple database because the field name could
be the LUA variable name inside the record structure.  This
would be especially usefull if the database could accept a
variable record format.  (and who cares about the Third
Normal Form anyway.  haha)

    A LUA source or bytecode file could be associated with the
application so that a double click would start the LUA program
executing.  Perhaps a different copy of the runtime environment
application could be started for every LUA execution.  An easy
way to multitask LUA programs. :)))

    There have been a few times when I've wished I had such
a program for creating those silly little applications that users
often value so much.  I mean programs that consist of a single
dialog box and assist in some kind of calculation or maintain
simple lists etc...

    Anyway, I'm just thinking out loud...  It's on my list of projects
to do when I have nothing better to do...  Maybe in 10 years...