Re: bundled packages

[Diego Nehab <diego@...>]

Hi,

> My problem is this : I wish to combine 3 packages (socket, mime and ltn12) 
> into a single dll. To do this, I've added a table "alias" to package, so if 
> package.alias["mime"] = "socket", the c loader will look for mime in 
> socket.dll, if it can't find it in mime.dll. This again can be implemented 
> outside loadlib, at the cost of some code duplication.
>
> Any problems with this approach ? It would certainly simplify distribution on 
> windows.

I would suggest two alternatives that don't require changing any C code.

1) using package.preload

Let's say you have packages a, b, c, inside some DLL d. You can do
something like this

    -- untested code follows

    package.preload.a = rc_loader("a", "d")
    package.preload.b = rc_loader("b", "d")
    package.preload.b = rc_loader("c", "d")

    -- returns a function that when invoked will load the appropriate
    -- chunk from the resource and call it
    function rc_loader(module, bundle)
        return function()
            local f = rc_chunk(module, bundle)
            f()
        end
    end

    function rc_chunk(module, bundle)
        -- somehow obtain the chunk from the resource in the DLL
        -- perhaps calling require(bundle) helps find it?
    end


2) Alternatively, create a new loader

    -- untested code follows

    function rc_loader(bundle)
        return function(name)
            -- somehow obtain the chunk from the resource in the DLL
            -- perhaps calling require(bundle) helps find it?
            return f
        end
    end

    table.insert(package.loaders, rc_loader("d"))

Hope I didn't mess up any details.

Regards,
Diego.