[ANN] Lua Alchemy v0.3.1

[Alexander Gladysh <agladysh@...>]

Announcing Lua Alchemy v0.3.1 release.

Demo: http://lua-alchemy.googlecode.com/svn/trunk/demo/index.html
Official site: http://code.google.com/p/lua-alchemy/
Sources: https://github.com/lua-alchemy/lua-alchemy/

Lua Alchemy is a MIT-licensed Lua implementation for the Adobe Flash
VM. (More correctly, it is the classic Lua 5.1.4, compiled under Adobe
Alchemy[1], with some pleasant sugar frosting on top.)

One of pleasant features is that with Lua Alchemy you can access
Action Script objects from the Lua code:

      local label = as3.class.mx.controls.Label.new()
      label.text = "Hello World"
      canvas.addChild(label)

(See more examples in the demo application linked above.)

Some changes in this version were sponsored by the DragonRAD:
http://dragonrad.com/.

See full list of changes here:

https://github.com/lua-alchemy/lua-alchemy/blob/v0.3.1/HISTORY

One interesting thing in the new release is the demo, demonstrating
how to run Lua Alchemy code as AIR application on iOS (or anywhere
really, where AIR is supported).

All and any feedback welcome.

* * *

Note on compatibility with upcoming Flash Player 11.2:

Adobe is phasing out old Adobe Alchemy, to be replaced with a new,
paid Alchemy 2 (of which almost nothing is yet known).

As of Flash Player 11.2 (not yet released by Adobe), Adobe Alchemy
(and, consequently, Lua Alchemy) would not work when compiled to SWF
13. It still would work when compiled to SWF 12. Lua Alchemy v0.3.1
build settings do not take this in account, so, they are, at this
point, broken under Flash Player 11.2 if built with Flex SDK 4.6.

Anyone interested should track this ticket:
http://code.google.com/p/lua-alchemy/issues/detail?id=160

I hope to fix the issue before Flash Player 11.2 is released.
Meanwhile, building Lua Alchemy (and your application, I guess) with
older Flex SDK versions should help.

* * *

Note on Alchemy 2 support: I do plan to support Alchemy 2 when it
would be available. Since I do not know anything about its API yet, I
can't estimate anything.

* * *

Note on Adobe AIR: I see that Native Extensions for Adobe AIR provide
introspection interface similar to what Adobe Alchemy provides. This
means that it should be possible to create an AIR native extension,
that would provide API similar to Lua Alchemy, but would be much
faster. I plan to poke this, but no ETA as well.

* * *

Remember, if you want your pet feature to be implemented in Lua
Alchemy faster, you may want to sponsor it. ;-)

* * *

Thank you, everyone, for your support,
Alexander.