[ANN] LuaHashMap: An easy to use hash table library for C (release candidate)

[Eric Wing <ewmailing@...>]

Hi all,
I wanted to announce my library, LuaHashMap: An easy to use hash table
library for C.

You guys might find this interesting/amusing because it turns the
traditional paradigm of embedding Lua on its head.

Instead of embedding Lua in your C program to make it extensible
through scripting, or instead of adding a C module to extend features
in Lua scripts, LuaHashMap utilizes Lua so the programmer can continue
working completely in C.

LuaHashMap wraps Lua to leverage its proven hash table implementation,
while providing a friendly C API (which avoids needing to know/use the
low-level Lua C-API). Thus Lua becomes a implementation detail for an
otherwise plain old C library. (Crazy, eh?)

There's also some other fun/crazy/nasty stuff included such as an
STL-like interface wrapper for LuaHashMap (conforms to
hash_map/unordered_map), and optional macros utilizing the new C11
_Generic feature for essentially C++-like overloading (without the C++
baggage).


I started this library on my free time nearly two years ago, but never
finished the final things needed to do a release like documentation
and benchmarks. I went through one major evolution about a year after
its inception, and I've been pretty happy with the API and performance
since. I did a big push on benchmarks 6 months ago, but never
finished. I finally resumed the benchmarks and finally did
documentation, so I am finally announcing this library. This is the
release candidate (currently at v.0.2.1). Assuming no major issues,
I'll bump up the version to 1.0 probably next year :P


I have a lot more information/documentation about it. The home page
for LuaHashMap is at:
http://playcontrol.net/opensource/LuaHashMap

The benchmarks aren't posted yet. I just finished collecting all the
data (multiple days worth or runs and reruns). I'm fussing with the
chart generation and still writing the analysis. I will post this with
or right after 1.0 (probably next week or the week after). I think the
benchmarks are very interesting (and it kind of turned into a language
shootout), so stay tuned.

Feedback is very welcome.

Thanks,
Eric
-- 
Beginning iPhone Games Development
http://playcontrol.net/iphonegamebook/