9 ms·

Ravi is a dialect of Lua, with JIT and AOT compilers

90 points by InitEnabler 3y ago

synergy20 3y ago
it's based off MIR, does it have something to do with https://mlir.llvm.org/ https://mlir.llvm.org/ ? for typed lua, there is a newer typescript-alike effort https://github.com/teal-language/tl https://github.com/teal-language/tl than the mentioned one at https://github.com/andremm/typedlua https://github.com/andremm/typedlua
- matthews2 3y ago
  MIR comes from the Rubyverse and isn't related to LLVM MLIR. https://github.com/vnmakarov/mir?tab=readme-ov-file#mir https://github.com/vnmakarov/mir?tab=readme-ov-file#mir
  - deleted 3y ago
    [deleted]
ArkimPhiri 3y ago
Ravi is interesting to work with. It's simplicity is was draws me the most.
uticus 3y ago
Love it. Use case is difficult to grasp at first, but seems to be somewhere less powerful than LuaJIT, but with typing; and more powerful than Typed Lua, but with the same typing? > Lua is perfect as a small embeddable dynamic language so why a derivative? Ravi extends Lua with static typing for improved performance when JIT compilation is enabled. > There are other attempts to add static typing to Lua - e.g. Typed Lua but these efforts are mostly about adding static type checks in the language while leaving the VM unmodified. > Of course there is the fantastic LuaJIT implementation. Ravi has a different goal compared to LuaJIT. Ravi prioritizes ease of maintenance and support, language safety, and compatibility with Lua 5.3, over maximum performance.
logtempo 3y ago
noob question from a hardware guy : what is a small embeddable dynamic language? What would be a user-case for example?
- bbkane 3y ago
  "small embeddable dynamic languages" are usually used to configure or program other larger compiled applications. This is bes understood by example: https://create.roblox.com/docs/tutorials/scripting/basic-scripting/intro-to-scripting https://create.roblox.com/docs/tutorials/scripting/basic-scr... - make a mini game in Roblox https://github.com/openresty/lua-nginx-module?tab=readme-ov-file#typical-uses https://github.com/openresty/lua-nginx-module?tab=readme-ov-... - configure and extend NGINX https://wezfurlong.org/wezterm/config/lua/general.html https://wezfurlong.org/wezterm/config/lua/general.html - make your terminal more useful (my personal config changes the tab color based on the process name - https://github.com/bbkane/dotfiles/blob/master/wezterm/dot-config/wezterm/format_tab_title.lua https://github.com/bbkane/dotfiles/blob/master/wezterm/dot-c... https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=MQBr9hwf0BY https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=MQBr9hwf0BY - configure your text editor
  - logtempo 3y ago
    ho I see. It's kind of a programming interface, a "higher level" language, a plug-in. for exemple, GdScript in Godot game engine would fall into the "embedded dynamic language" ?
    - bbkane 3y ago
      Yes I think so- it manipulates and orchestrates the compiled C++ code underneath.
- __s 3y ago
  The C Lua interpreter takes ~150k. It's easy to extend with your own types/functions. So it makes it easy to use as a Turing complete configuration language redis exposes a Lua scripting interface if one wants to avoid latency of executing commands back & forth over network: https://redis.io/docs/interact/programmability/eval-intro https://redis.io/docs/interact/programmability/eval-intro Over the last couple weeks I've been integrating gopher-lua (a Lua implementation in Go, which then plays nice with Go types & its GC) into PeerDB for scripting data transformations. It's been easy expose stuff like decimal types to the script. It allows a program to make itself extensible
vitiral 3y ago
Love it but don't quite get it. Lua only has 5 "data" types: nil, bool, number, string, and table. There is also "userdata" (defined in C) Would this improve performance for functions that take in the non-table types? Or does it provide some mechanism for structured data besides tables? I have a hard time believing there are many performance gains to be had for the few functions that take in only native types. I suppose compiling those could have major performance improvements in a few tight-loop use-cases?
- Moomoomoo309 3y ago
  You forgot in Lua 5.3+ "integer". (there's also "thread" for coroutines and "function", but those aren't "data" types)
  - vitiral 3y ago
    Integer is a good point. I just learned about math.type in 5.3!

90 points by InitEnabler 3y ago

it's based off MIR, does it have something to do with https://mlir.llvm.org/ https://mlir.llvm.org/ ? for typed lua, there is a newer typescript-alike effort https://github.com/teal-language/tl https://github.com/teal-language/tl than the mentioned one at https://github.com/andremm/typedlua https://github.com/andremm/typedlua

matthews2 3y ago
MIR comes from the Rubyverse and isn't related to LLVM MLIR. https://github.com/vnmakarov/mir?tab=readme-ov-file#mir https://github.com/vnmakarov/mir?tab=readme-ov-file#mir
- deleted 3y ago
  [deleted]

ArkimPhiri 3y ago

Ravi is interesting to work with. It's simplicity is was draws me the most.

uticus 3y ago

Love it. Use case is difficult to grasp at first, but seems to be somewhere less powerful than LuaJIT, but with typing; and more powerful than Typed Lua, but with the same typing? > Lua is perfect as a small embeddable dynamic language so why a derivative? Ravi extends Lua with static typing for improved performance when JIT compilation is enabled. > There are other attempts to add static typing to Lua - e.g. Typed Lua but these efforts are mostly about adding static type checks in the language while leaving the VM unmodified. > Of course there is the fantastic LuaJIT implementation. Ravi has a different goal compared to LuaJIT. Ravi prioritizes ease of maintenance and support, language safety, and compatibility with Lua 5.3, over maximum performance.

logtempo 3y ago

noob question from a hardware guy : what is a small embeddable dynamic language? What would be a user-case for example?

bbkane 3y ago
"small embeddable dynamic languages" are usually used to configure or program other larger compiled applications. This is bes understood by example: https://create.roblox.com/docs/tutorials/scripting/basic-scripting/intro-to-scripting https://create.roblox.com/docs/tutorials/scripting/basic-scr... - make a mini game in Roblox https://github.com/openresty/lua-nginx-module?tab=readme-ov-file#typical-uses https://github.com/openresty/lua-nginx-module?tab=readme-ov-... - configure and extend NGINX https://wezfurlong.org/wezterm/config/lua/general.html https://wezfurlong.org/wezterm/config/lua/general.html - make your terminal more useful (my personal config changes the tab color based on the process name - https://github.com/bbkane/dotfiles/blob/master/wezterm/dot-config/wezterm/format_tab_title.lua https://github.com/bbkane/dotfiles/blob/master/wezterm/dot-c... https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=MQBr9hwf0BY https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=MQBr9hwf0BY - configure your text editor
- logtempo 3y ago
  ho I see. It's kind of a programming interface, a "higher level" language, a plug-in. for exemple, GdScript in Godot game engine would fall into the "embedded dynamic language" ?
  - bbkane 3y ago
    Yes I think so- it manipulates and orchestrates the compiled C++ code underneath.
__s 3y ago
The C Lua interpreter takes ~150k. It's easy to extend with your own types/functions. So it makes it easy to use as a Turing complete configuration language redis exposes a Lua scripting interface if one wants to avoid latency of executing commands back & forth over network: https://redis.io/docs/interact/programmability/eval-intro https://redis.io/docs/interact/programmability/eval-intro Over the last couple weeks I've been integrating gopher-lua (a Lua implementation in Go, which then plays nice with Go types & its GC) into PeerDB for scripting data transformations. It's been easy expose stuff like decimal types to the script. It allows a program to make itself extensible

vitiral 3y ago

Love it but don't quite get it. Lua only has 5 "data" types: nil, bool, number, string, and table. There is also "userdata" (defined in C) Would this improve performance for functions that take in the non-table types? Or does it provide some mechanism for structured data besides tables? I have a hard time believing there are many performance gains to be had for the few functions that take in only native types. I suppose compiling those could have major performance improvements in a few tight-loop use-cases?

Moomoomoo309 3y ago
You forgot in Lua 5.3+ "integer". (there's also "thread" for coroutines and "function", but those aren't "data" types)
- vitiral 3y ago
  Integer is a good point. I just learned about math.type in 5.3!