Re: Metaprogramming

[Steve Litt <slitt@...>]

On Sun, 6 Jul 2014 00:08:36 -0700
Tim Hill <drtimhill@gmail.com> wrote:


> Why we picked Lua for our work:
> 
> — Fast: Passed all our performance tests with flying colors

> — Robust: We didn’t find a SINGLE bug when stress testing Lua 5.2
> (example: we created 25,000 Lua states and ran them all for a month)

> — Clean syntax: Yes, it’s not a language everyone knows, but if you
> can’t pick up Lua in a few days max you aren’t a developer. 

> — Compact: The footprint is important to us for low power and
> operation on a wide range of devices: embedded to server 

> — Stable:
> The release cycle seems sensible, with carefully thought out releases
> with significant improvements 

> — Rational C API: Ever looked at the
> Python one?

The last one is the big one, if you ask me. Python, Perl, and Ruby are
all fast enough for most situations, and the apps you build with them
are stable. Except Perl, they all have clean syntax, though not as
clean as "only complex data structure is a table" Lua. 

Most people don't need compact.

But if you need to interface with C, going both ways, Lua's absolutely
the way to go.


SteveT

Steve Litt                *  http://www.troubleshooters.com/
Troubleshooting Training  *  Human Performance