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David Given wrote:
...
Python's big killer feature is the library set, which Lua doesn't have. I wonder --- might it be possible to build a Lua-to-Python-extension connector to allow Python libraries to be used in Lua?

The problem with that (as has been argued here) is that a "big" library for Lua goes against the design principal of small and fast, with plenty of extension capabilities. The problem with briding Lua to Python is that then you need Python on every machine that you want to run Lua on, and the styles of the libraries would probably not match well. You might as well choose a library built specifically for Lua, of which there are many.

I think the problem is that it is too hard to collect together the needed libraries. I believe Lua does need to ship with "a little more" libarary functionality, which is why I am working on osex. But we also need installers for this core and a useful set of extension libraries to make setting up your installation easy.

Maybe we should have something like CPAN, the Perl archive network. I hate the interface to this system, but conceptually it is good. Once you set it up on your machine (and it is included with recent versions of Perl) you can search for a library you want and then ask it to install it. As long as your platform is supported, CPAN will do all the rest.

--
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"As a general rule,don't solve puzzles that open portals to Hell"'