Re: Where to advertise/look for libraries (Was: Expanding the standard library functions?)

[Dirk Laurie <dirk.laurie@...>]

2016-01-25 16:02 GMT+02:00 Peter Aronoff <telemachus@arpinum.org>:
> On Sunday, January 24, 2016 at 07:54PM, Paul Merrell wrote:
>> A gentle reminder that if you want people to share in the Lua library
>> goodness you create, you need to list your library on the correct
>> lua-users.org page.[1]
>>
>> It's helpful if you include in your description which versions of Lua
>> your library has been tested with.
>
>
> I'm not sure if this was specifically for me or a general reminder, but I'm
> curious about it either way.
>
> When I need a lua library, my first instinct isn't to go to that wiki at
> all, but to go to LuaRocks[1]. And it's suprising to me that the wiki
> doesn't even mention LuaRocks.
>
> I'm wonder if this is just a cultural split between (relatively) newer and
> older users of Lua. I'd be curious to hear other thoughts.

I never look to LuaRocks for anything I can do myself. Somehow
the modules for those make the phrase "yet another" pop up
in my mind. This includes:

1. Yet another expansion of the string or table libraries.
2. Yet another realization of some other language's best features,
especially models for introducing classes.

I always look to luarocks for things that would require a heck of
a lot of work on topics I know little about. For example:

1. Interfaces to GUI libraries. Note "interfaces", not "bindings".
If their documentation is just "the calling sequence is the same as
that of the C library", I don't bother. (Although by then my download
has already incremented the counter on the LuaRocks server.)
2. Reading and writing common binary and text-but-human-unfriendly
formats, like XML, MIDI, MP3. (I don't mean to say there is actually
a good MP3 utility on LuaRocks, only that I did look for one.)

The thing I miss most about LuaRocks is that information on update
and download activity is not supplied by 'luarocks search'. Those would
allow the user to draw some conclusions without actually downloading,
e.g. updated seldom and downloaded often ==> stable, updated often
and downloaded seldom ==> bleeding-edge but an APP.  [1]

I never look to the Wiki in order to find full modules, only snippets,
e.g. exploiting __call and __index to make str[3], str{3,5} and str(3,5)
mean three different useful things.

I always look to the Wiki for things I try to implement in Lua
when it reaches the stage that what I am doing looks sloppy to me.
These are almost by definition advanced topics, such as:

1. Metamethods, e.g.
2. Userdata.
3. Coroutines.

I am not a regular Wiki contributor, but have made numerous
small edits.

The thing I miss most about the Wiki is that a search gives only
page names. Quoting the particular line or two that triggered the
hit, as Google does, would be a big improvement.

[1] Author's pet project.