Re: return value of require?

[Hakki Dogusan <dogusanh@...>]

Hi,

Miles Bader wrote:
> For a while, I've tended to use require like:
>
>    local XX = require 'whatever'
>    XX.whatever()
>
> This seems to work with almost every module I've tried it with, and
> offers a nice sense of locality.
>
> [The alternative, of course, is to assume the loaded package will
> put a "whatever" entry in _G.]
>
> However I've just realized that some things _don't_ return an
> appropriate table from require.  In particular swig-generated interfaces
> seem to simply return the string "whatever"!  I could swear this _used_
> to work with swig-generated interface, but it's been some months since I
> last did something that would test that.
>
> So, what exactly _is_ the recommended way to do this?  Is swig being bad
> by returning a string instead?  Should I change my style of using
> modules?

Can't comment on swig, but I'm using your style. In addition, I'm 
writing my lua code as modules too (learned this style from Petite 
Abeille's code):

--yyyy.lua
--imports
local xx = require"xxxx"
local setmetatable = setmetatable
local require = require
local print = print
module("yyyy")

local function fa() print"yyyy.fa" end
local function fb() print"yyyy.fb" end

--simulate ctor
function __call(self, ...)
  local t = {}
  t.a = fa
  -- not public! t.b = fb
  return t
end
setmetatable(_M, _M)

--zzzz.lua
local Y = require"yyyy"
local y = Y()
y:a()
---

> Thanks,
>
> -Miles


--
Regards,
Hakki Dogusan