Re: Desired Lua Features

[KHMan <keinhong@...>]

On 1/28/2018 11:02 PM, Paige DePol wrote:
> Dibyendu recently started a discussion about wether or not Lua has reached
> perfection. Of course, this will be a subject highly dependant on the need
> and opinions of each user of Lua.
>
> On that same discussion topic the desire for a switch/case like construct
> in Lua came up... so I thought I would start a new discussion thread to
> see what features people would like to see added to vanilla Lua.

To elaborate a bit on my previous postings: I was reading Peter's 
posting and switch/case was the first thing that popped into my 
head, so I used that as an example for the topic under discussion. 
The size of the SwitchStatement page on the Lua wiki leads one to 
think, why? It's a kind of "rumblings of discontent", hence 
imperfection.

I think certain thinking processes when coding translates well to 
a switch/case kind of construct, but it doesn't happen often 
(well, depends). When it happens, the coder stops and asks, why 
can't I use switch/case here?

Perhaps C/Pascal switch/case came historically somewhere at the 
point where a full set of control structures has materialized, and 
so C is being used as a useful baseline for feature comparison.

It's true that in Lua there are many alternatives to C/Pascal 
style switch/case, and we can get by without it, but the main 
thing that bugs me today is that the intent of the coder was not 
expressed in the clearest possible way.

> So, if you could add any one feature to Lua right now, what would that
> feature be and why would you want to see it added? Please note that this
> discussion is in no way meant to be interpreted as pressuring Team Lua to
> add any features to Lua, I am genuinely curious what features people want
> to see added to Lua and why.
>
> My interest in this subject isn't just academic, however, I may take some
> of these ideas on board to add to my hard fork of Lua. If so, I would also
> create patches for vanilla Lua as well! :)


--
Cheers,
Kein-Hong Man (esq.)
Selangor, Malaysia