RE: Lua libraries

[Nick Trout <Nick.Trout@...>]

> It seems that we are talking about two different things here. I was
> proposing a standard way of defining lua libraries, that 
> should be portable
> acrooss multiple platforms, 

I think this is the way to go. I cant really can't see the point of writing
a config file to build a static exe. Thats whats done already. It means that
the executable needs to contain all libraries available to Lua and if you
merely want to try something out you have to build a new version etc. It
doesnt solve the problem.

> and should for this reason 
> abstract details
> about the operating system, like the path of the library and
> prefixes/sufixes.

This would be nice. I think the DLLs just need to be in your path to be
loaded but it would be nice to add the functionality to search a "lua path"
for scripts and libraries. As Roberto points out require can be used to load
both if the DLL has a wrapper script. There are other benefits to having a
wrapper rather than just for loading.

It would be nice if Lua had something similar to Pythons os and os.path
modules so you can stick paths together and manipulate them cross platform.
*STD library people?*

> It seems that the 'loadlib' name has already been used, so 
> using that name
> would probably confuse many people. There are many other 
> posibilities out
> there: 'openlib', loadmodule, 'use', 'uselib', 'loadlibrary', 
> 'loadlualib'

It can be used again as "require" can be used to load a script. use etc are
not needed.

> If nobody minds, I will be writting a lua addon for windows, linux and
> solaris (the platforms I have available) in a few days with the
> requierements I have in mind. Any suggestion will be welcomed.

Please do. I had a little play around as well. Will post what I have when a
little more complete.

Regards,
Nick