I started a new
thread because my Panda bears will die title was offensive.
Strengths.Weaknesses.Opportunities.Threats
To answer this:
"""Why does Lua needs to compete with the fat language? There are plenty to choose from: PHP, Perl, Ruby, Python, etc.
I view Lua a very nice little language that can be easily embedded in other software systems. Or something small enough that you can put it on tiny hardware (e.g., eLua). There are plenty of large "fat" languages that are feature rich, have bazillions of packages and much "power", whatever someone might think that is. But there are very few small, compact language implementations in the space that Lua is in. The closest is probably Tcl which is pretty old at this point, and I think Lua is a wonderful, "modern" replacement for the space that Tcl was popular in. Perhaps ficl is another, somewhat less well known example."""
I think Lua is coming to a cross roads. I know it is bad etiquette to discuss one's computer but please forgive this under this context, my machine has 8Gs of ram. I'm not bragging, yours probably has more but it is important. If this is about average now, in 5 years it will be 4X this.
If Python runs something in 200ms and Lua runs it in 50ms I don't care, it's still a blink of an eye.
Python is so much easier to learn then Lua and Haskell seems a have more built in facilities for advanced programming(I've only started to learn it).
I wonder if Forth died because the memory savings no longer offset and difficult programming model? It also looks like the Forth community tore it in half, with one camp wanting it bigger and more feature rich while the other camp wanted it small and simple.
I think there is a real danger of ignoring the non-programmer(are modules simple to them? and how many geologists understand weak tables?) and not focusing on adding in the facilities for easier programming. I think there is also a real danger of not having enough advanced features to compete with Haskell and other fat FP languages.
Ultimately the Lua team will know best but I have been with Lua for two years now, not due to it's small size but to it's wonderful community(aside from module debates). I love how Luiz and Roberto are here everyday helping out and not off in an ivory tower somewhere else. If they weren't here I would not be here either.
-Patrick
