4 ms·
It definitely is the mainstream continuation of that language by the original authors. Changing the API, or the implementation, or making other breaking changes
by pull_my_finger 5y ago
It definitely is the mainstream continuation of that language by the original authors. Changing the API, or the implementation, or making other breaking changes does not automatically (or otherwise exclusively) make it a "language fork". Lua has the luxury of making breaking changes, and most Lua users both accept and appreciate that. Lua is continuously refined while languages like JavaScript and PHP are stuck with their (sometimes dubious) decisions forever or _break the web_.
- upofadown 5y agoThis is not breaking an API or the implementation. It is not a refinement. This is a change to the language itself. If you had a published standard it would be a change and not an addition.
- josephcsible 5y agoWas the release of C11 a fork of the C language, since they removed the gets() function?
- upofadown 5y agoA change in a library is not a change of the language. So definitely no.
- josephcsible 5y agoOkay, will the release of C2x be a fork of the C language, since it's going to remove support for K&R function definitions (and not every such function can be rewritten to use the new style)?
- upofadown 5y agoANSI C definitely counted as a language fork. Things were different in that there were multiple existing branches and ANSI C was a fairly attempt to create a dominant one. This example supports my contention that you have to clearly identify which branch you mean, K+R vs ANSI was definitely something you had to specify.