[dev-context] Re: lua

[Hans Hagen]

Hartmut Henkel wrote:

>On Mon, 8 Aug 2005, Hans Hagen wrote:
>
>  
>
>>Recently i've started looking into Lua, a language meant for embedding
>>in programs. It has a small footprint, and by reading themanukl i get
>>the impression that it's a pretty well designed and clever language.
>>So (after playing with lua and scite, which has it embedded) i started
>>wondering about including lua in pdftex. Of course i'm dependent on
>>others but i'm curious abotu wat members of this list think of it. It
>>has quite a clever function model. Especially because it has a small
>>footprint (some 100-150 k) it would add a lot to pdftex but at little
>>cost.
>>
>>think of on the one hand:
>>
>>\dimen0=\lua{tex.todimen(tex.thedimen(0)+tex.thedimen(2)}
>>    
>>
>
>or maybe \lua{tex.dimen(7) = tex.dimen(0)+tex.dimen(2)}
>  
>
indeed,  think it depends on the low level system, if we move scaled 
points (abstract) around

>>and alike. Of course the interface is to be determined, but a
>>startingpoint can be access to box dimensions and registers and the
>>ability to pipe text (strings) back into teh tex inpt stream.
>>
>>whatdoyouthink ...
>>    
>>
>
>looks interesting. Lua is part of debian sarge, have to play with it.
>Seems regexs are not POSIX. Something similar but with a larger
>  
>
no, but they are ok and pretty good;

>footprint, > 750 kByte, you would get from another language familiar to
>you :-)
>
>   Embedding a Ruby Interpreter
>  
>
sure, but too big and getting bigger; could be a next step -) the 
problem with ruby, python, perl is that it keeps growing and one needs 
to ship everything while lua is and remains small and (imo) is rather 
well suited forthe purpose

actually, once we have an api, it's relatively easy to access it from ruby

>   In addition to extending Ruby by adding C code, you can also turn the
>   problem around and embed Ruby itself within your application. Here's
>   an example...
>
>Similar principle. rubypdftex, luapdftex,...
>  
>
indeed, 

Hans 


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