Re: require vs dofile and how to organise many functions

[Petite Abeille <petite_abeille@...>]

On Jul 22, 2009, at 12:19 PM, startx wrote:

> not that i want to discuss taste only ;) ... but what would be your
> alternative suggestion to organise a huge bunch of functions? im open
> to try different flavours ...

There are many ways to skin that cat, but I personally use  
module( 'MyModule' ) and that's all.

In general, one file, one named module, one private name space, one  
public API exposed through meta methods.

For example, assuming a module 'HMAC':

http://dev.alt.textdrive.com/browser/HTTP/HMAC.lua

% cat HMAC.lua

-- import external dependencies
local getmetatable = getmetatable
local setmetatable = setmetatable

-- explicitly name the module
module( 'HMAC' )

-- add meta table when appropriate
local self = setmetatable( _M, {} )
local meta = getmetatable( self )

-- do stuff in the privacy of the module
local function HMAC( aKey, aValue )
end

-- expose stuff to the outside
function meta:__call( aKey, aValue )
    return HMAC( aKey, aValue )
end

FWIW, the above convention is followed by Nanoki:

http://dev.alt.textdrive.com/browser/HTTP

As with many other things in Lua, it takes a while to come up with an  
organizational style which consistently support one programming  
mannerism due to Lua's inherent flexibility.

http://lua-users.org/wiki/LuaStyleGuide

Cheers,

PA.