Readers note: I'm very tired this morning so this email may be disjointed. I'm sending now because I have the time available and my laptop battery is dying...
Good News Everyone! [1]
1) Status
As many of you know I've been plugging away at providing what I consider a good level of support for Lua on Windows. That effort morphed into an actual project not too long ago, which has been named WinLua (Thank you again Jonathan Goble). The idea started as a simple Windows installer, which I think I have provided with WinLua release 1 revision 1803a (1.1803.1), though testing is still ongoing. It also appears I've mucked the licenses and bundled my debug build so a 1803b is coming. (rolling of eyes).
2) Future Progress
The process of learning to install Lua has shown me there is need for futher support on Windows in a number of areas, notably:
- Working with LUA_PATH and PATH values
- Binary components for Lua Modules
- Integration into Microsoft Toolchains (IIS, shell environments, .Net and VC++)
- Integration into the Microsoft Installer system
I think I have come up with a reasonable path forward for some of these goals, though I still need to write a proper manefest. The TLDR is as follows:
a) Provide a LuaRocks based system - This is what WinLua is about
b) Provide a binary "batteries included" Windows installer for Lua. I've picked LuaPlus for that role and will create an installer once I get familiarity with it.
c) Provide a graphical front end for managing LuaRocks and administrative settings (LAU_PATH, PATH). I have started a Qt based program for that.
d) Provide at least one solid .Net integration tool (not very close but I have a roadmap in my head).
Further to item 1: I have been trolling the Internet for various packages of interest and recently contacted the LuaForWindows author. Ryan is eager to see his work picked back up and I have tentatively offered to fold it under WinLua. The idea would be to bring LFW up to current, and then morph WinLua and LuaForWindows together as a LuaRocks supported 'distro'. Our current thought is a user would download and install the WinLua MSI installer and then through LuaRocks, install the "luaforwindows rock" that then requires all the desired modules. Binary availability of rocks will be key to success for this possibility.
3) Call for members/contributors
While I am thoroughly enjoying myself solving all these little problems, I thought I would now open up the project to the Lua community and ask for members and contributors. The two most practical reasons for the move being:
a) I have clearly taken on a great deal of work that needs to be supportable in the long term
b) Membership and visible support is a key item for getting people to use your project in the age of Github
And thirdly I'm a lonely software guy and would love some company.:D
If you have any interest in supporting WinLua, please send me an email on this chain, personal email, or on github and request memebership. You don't have to actually contribute to show support. On the other hand, if you'd like to contribute, I would be pleased to discuss working with you.
If interest does surface, I'll be sure to work a little harder to document the project/contribution structure and my role within WinLua.
4) Commercial Intentions
I will note here that I do have a single commercial intention with WinLua - I will be creating a website for my 'company' and providing the documentation on that site at some point. Any money generated from the hosted documentation will be kept by me. If there is significant documentation contributions from others, I will re-consider this topic.
If, in the future, a commercial package for the WinLua distribution becomes a possibility, I will be sure to make that clear to any WinLua members. However, I do not foresee that actuality being an issue as Windows support in-and-of itself is not in my 'business model'.
5) Other Projects
There are many good Lua projects that I want to support. Ravi (and D.'s torch support) is high on my list of other cool distributions I'd like to consider in the future. If you have any ideas that you want to suggest, again, please send me an email.
Thanks everyone, and thanks Lua Team for the great language.
Russ
