5 ms·

Sometimes I wonder why we're not all using Lua instead of Python. Lua seems to get a strange amount of hate in some circles, but I've found both Lua and Python

• zeugmasyllepsis 8y ago
  I had a similar feeling a while back, but when I actually picked up Lua for a project I was shocked by how limited the standard library is. Third party libraries aside (which Python clearly has in spades), even just the standard library is pretty sparse. It makes sense, since Lua is at least partly motivated by being lean and embeddable, but it puts Lua in a completely different space for me.
• make3 8y ago
  no batteries
• civility 8y ago
  Other folks complain about the lack of libraries. Personally, the two things which turn me off on Lua (luajit) are 1-based arrays and the conflation of hash-tables and array-lists into a single thing.
  • enriquto 8y ago
    > the conflation of hash-tables and array-lists into a single thing. Precisely, one of the things that turns me off on Python (coming from Lua), is the unnatural proliferation of different container types.
    • civility 8y ago
      To each their own :-) You might like Tcl - associative arrays (hash tables), arrays (lists), strings, numbers, and code are all the one type (at least conceptually).
    • rrcaptain 8y ago
      Oddly that's one of the things I like most about python. The containers module has so many very useful things. Plus hash-tables and array-lists shouldn't ever really be the same thing.
  • hiccuphippo 8y ago
    I don't like how everybody invents their own class system.
• lifthrasiir 8y ago
  From my personal account about Lua [1]: > Three, the language is not a mere combination of syntax and semantics. Any evaluation should also account for user bases and ecosystem, and in my very humble opinion Lua spectacularly fails at both. I'm not going to assume the alternative reality---Lua has a sizable user base and its ecosystem is worse even for that user base. > [...] The lack of quality library also means that you are even more risky when you are writing a small program (because you have less incentive to write it yourself). I have experienced multiple times that even the existing libraries (including the standard ones) had crucial flaws and no one seems to be bothered to fix that. Also in the embedded setting the use of snippets, rather than proper libraries, are more common as libraries can be harder to integrate, and unfortunately we are left with PHP-esque lua-users.org for Lua... I think this critique still holds today, and unless miracle happens (like D), I doubt this is fixable. [1] https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=13902023 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=13902023