Re: newbie: how to modify lua code while the program is running like visual basic

[Philippe Lhoste <PhiLho@...>]

On 21/06/2012 21:41, yoyomeltz yoyomeltz wrote:
> kevin, thanks you much. it does seem to offer what i wanted but the problem is i would be
> locked into an ide that does not seem to offer much else.
>
> there has to be a simple way to dynamically reload code as needed via a
> console/command.line or other simple solution.
> if visual basic from microsoft can do it and python can do it, then why should i be an
> issue for Lua.
> even visual basic 6.0 from 10 years ago can do that.
>
> it seems to me this such a feature is a pre-requisite for learning any language, espcially
> a lightweight scripting language.
> so does anybody have any other suggestions?

Well, if I am not mistaken, VB is "locked into an IDE"...
I don't know for Python.
Debugging is often tied to an IDE anyway, unless you are using some command line debug 
tool (but that's still a tool, often separate of the compiler / interpreter, no?).

Eclipse (and probably other Java IDEs as well) allows such hot fix, changing code while 
running and the program continue to run with this change.
Now, it has some limitations: if you change a method while debugging in it, Eclipse puts 
the current program line pointer to the start of the method.
If you change deeply a class, eg. the visibility of a method, or a new method, it tells 
you it can't do the hot fix and shows markers in the debug stack trace to show the code is 
no longer synchronized.

So it isn't a perfect feature for every language / IDE. Just a very convenient feature!

Note: don't under-evaluate the power of print() in tracing / debugging Lua! :-)

--
Philippe Lhoste
--  (near) Paris -- France
--  http://Phi.Lho.free.fr
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