6 ms·

IOS Programming with Lua

35 points by wiradikusuma 14y ago

krob 14y ago
Would anyone actually use lua to build a full on ios application though? Is Lua an acceptable alternative to Obj-C?..
- tudorizer 14y ago
  This might give you more insight: http://od-eon.com/blogs/alumni/tudor/lua-vs-obj-c/ http://od-eon.com/blogs/alumni/tudor/lua-vs-obj-c/
  - mahmud 14y ago
    That's a flattering post. Lua is a much better language than Objective-C and should see more use.
  - rimantas 14y ago
    But make sure to look into comments for insight, not the post itself.
    - tudorizer 14y ago
      yup. The discussion sparked in the comments and here on HN 1 year ago was quite interesting
donpark 14y ago
Wax looks good at least for experiments and prototypes. However, a quick look at Wax issues on github reveals the project has issues that have not been addressed in recent months. So it appears to be a fixer-upper for now.
esusatyo 14y ago
I should note that Codea uses Lua too: http://twolivesleft.com/Codea http://twolivesleft.com/Codea You can even code on the iPad itself, and use Codea Runtime to convert it to Objective-C: https://github.com/TwoLivesLeft/Codea-Runtime https://github.com/TwoLivesLeft/Codea-Runtime
- DaveSapien 14y ago
  Yeah I used it to while I was recovering from an operation. I like lua but still feels like a joke language to me. Anyway heres a video of what I did http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MOV8j7GM3JA http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MOV8j7GM3JA FYI, Everything was made on the ipad.
  - outworlder 14y ago
    What do you mean by 'joke language'? It is used professionally for far longer than some 'enterprisey' languages are around.
    - DaveSapien 14y ago
      Yeah I know the history, I absolutely recommend it as a learning tool and for some professional jobs. It's just, if that then do this end. Feels like a lot of key pushes to get a result. Anyway I'm going to run a lua poetry competition on my twitter feed later today if your interested? @DaveSapien
epaga 14y ago
Another Lua-based framework for iOS programming is Moai. I played around with it a while back and fell in love with Lua. Really simple yet powerful stuff. http://getmoai.com/ http://getmoai.com/
- toddz 14y ago
  +1 for Moai!
wiradikusuma 14y ago
I'm wondering if MoonScript (http://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=4741331 http://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=4741331) can be combined with this Lua-based iOS (quick googling reveals nothing). It's like CoffeeScript for iOS!
- jacktoole1 14y ago
  Yep, there's nothing preventing it, although I don't know enough about systems like Corona, Codea, or Moai to know whether you'd miss out on any IDE functionality. I'm currently using moonscript to power my side project on iOS. It's great!
- anonymoushn 14y ago
  One moonscript implementation is a loader, so this would be pretty easy to do.
brianchu 14y ago
The problem with using Lua is that you lose debugging/profiling support and incur performance overhead. The loss of the debugging support afforded to Objective-C code might be enough to eliminate any time saved. I do believe that Corona offers debugging support, but Corona has it's own problems: it's a cross-platform engine that necessarily incurs overhead and restricts flexibility. Furthermore, one of the benefits of Lua that the article cites, automatic memory allocation, is obviated by using automatic reference counting in Objective-C (which also makes Obj-C more concise).
- cageface 14y ago
  Apple has polished enough of the warts of Obj-C now that I'd be pretty reluctant to throw out all the benefits you get from tight tooling integration. I think in most cases it makes more sense to just use what Apple hath provided (but edit your code in AppCode instead of XCode).
  - brianchu 14y ago
    Hm... Is AppCode really that much better than Xcode?
    - cageface 14y ago
      Opinions vary a bit and Xcode is certainly much better at 4.5 than it was at 4.0 but I live in AppCode and would hate to have to actually write much code in Xcode.
- pygy_ 14y ago
  There are remote debuggers for Lua, like Zerobrane Studio (http://studio.zerobrane.com/ http://studio.zerobrane.com/), that allows to patch the code at runtime, enabling live coding, or Koneki (http://www.eclipse.org/koneki/ldt/ http://www.eclipse.org/koneki/ldt/). I know there's more, see here for the full list of IDEs: http://lua-users.org/wiki/LuaIntegratedDevelopmentEnvironments http://lua-users.org/wiki/LuaIntegratedDevelopmentEnvironmen...
- outworlder 14y ago
ibisum 14y ago
Also: MOAI.
fyolnish 14y ago
If you want to use the very fast LuaJIT I wrote an Objective-C bridge (purely in lua) for it: https://github.com/fjolnir/tlc https://github.com/fjolnir/tlc
- outworlder 14y ago
  My understanding was that iOS did not have BridgeSupport. Am I mistaken?
  - fyolnish 14y ago
    You can generate your own with gen_bridge_metadata. But bridgesupport is only necessary if you want automatic access to things you can't get from the runtime.

35 points by wiradikusuma 14y ago

krob 14y ago

Would anyone actually use lua to build a full on ios application though? Is Lua an acceptable alternative to Obj-C?..

tudorizer 14y ago
This might give you more insight: http://od-eon.com/blogs/alumni/tudor/lua-vs-obj-c/ http://od-eon.com/blogs/alumni/tudor/lua-vs-obj-c/
- mahmud 14y ago
  That's a flattering post. Lua is a much better language than Objective-C and should see more use.
- rimantas 14y ago
  But make sure to look into comments for insight, not the post itself.
  - tudorizer 14y ago
    yup. The discussion sparked in the comments and here on HN 1 year ago was quite interesting

donpark 14y ago

Wax looks good at least for experiments and prototypes. However, a quick look at Wax issues on github reveals the project has issues that have not been addressed in recent months. So it appears to be a fixer-upper for now.

esusatyo 14y ago

I should note that Codea uses Lua too: http://twolivesleft.com/Codea http://twolivesleft.com/Codea You can even code on the iPad itself, and use Codea Runtime to convert it to Objective-C: https://github.com/TwoLivesLeft/Codea-Runtime https://github.com/TwoLivesLeft/Codea-Runtime

DaveSapien 14y ago
Yeah I used it to while I was recovering from an operation. I like lua but still feels like a joke language to me. Anyway heres a video of what I did http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MOV8j7GM3JA http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MOV8j7GM3JA FYI, Everything was made on the ipad.
- outworlder 14y ago
  What do you mean by 'joke language'? It is used professionally for far longer than some 'enterprisey' languages are around.
  - DaveSapien 14y ago
    Yeah I know the history, I absolutely recommend it as a learning tool and for some professional jobs. It's just, if that then do this end. Feels like a lot of key pushes to get a result. Anyway I'm going to run a lua poetry competition on my twitter feed later today if your interested? @DaveSapien

epaga 14y ago

Another Lua-based framework for iOS programming is Moai. I played around with it a while back and fell in love with Lua. Really simple yet powerful stuff. http://getmoai.com/ http://getmoai.com/

toddz 14y ago
+1 for Moai!

wiradikusuma 14y ago

I'm wondering if MoonScript (http://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=4741331 http://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=4741331) can be combined with this Lua-based iOS (quick googling reveals nothing). It's like CoffeeScript for iOS!

jacktoole1 14y ago
Yep, there's nothing preventing it, although I don't know enough about systems like Corona, Codea, or Moai to know whether you'd miss out on any IDE functionality. I'm currently using moonscript to power my side project on iOS. It's great!
anonymoushn 14y ago
One moonscript implementation is a loader, so this would be pretty easy to do.

brianchu 14y ago

The problem with using Lua is that you lose debugging/profiling support and incur performance overhead. The loss of the debugging support afforded to Objective-C code might be enough to eliminate any time saved. I do believe that Corona offers debugging support, but Corona has it's own problems: it's a cross-platform engine that necessarily incurs overhead and restricts flexibility. Furthermore, one of the benefits of Lua that the article cites, automatic memory allocation, is obviated by using automatic reference counting in Objective-C (which also makes Obj-C more concise).

cageface 14y ago
Apple has polished enough of the warts of Obj-C now that I'd be pretty reluctant to throw out all the benefits you get from tight tooling integration. I think in most cases it makes more sense to just use what Apple hath provided (but edit your code in AppCode instead of XCode).
- brianchu 14y ago
  Hm... Is AppCode really that much better than Xcode?
  - cageface 14y ago
    Opinions vary a bit and Xcode is certainly much better at 4.5 than it was at 4.0 but I live in AppCode and would hate to have to actually write much code in Xcode.
pygy_ 14y ago
There are remote debuggers for Lua, like Zerobrane Studio (http://studio.zerobrane.com/ http://studio.zerobrane.com/), that allows to patch the code at runtime, enabling live coding, or Koneki (http://www.eclipse.org/koneki/ldt/ http://www.eclipse.org/koneki/ldt/). I know there's more, see here for the full list of IDEs: http://lua-users.org/wiki/LuaIntegratedDevelopmentEnvironments http://lua-users.org/wiki/LuaIntegratedDevelopmentEnvironmen...
outworlder 14y ago

ibisum 14y ago

Also: MOAI.

fyolnish 14y ago

If you want to use the very fast LuaJIT I wrote an Objective-C bridge (purely in lua) for it: https://github.com/fjolnir/tlc https://github.com/fjolnir/tlc

outworlder 14y ago
My understanding was that iOS did not have BridgeSupport. Am I mistaken?
- fyolnish 14y ago
  You can generate your own with gen_bridge_metadata. But bridgesupport is only necessary if you want automatic access to things you can't get from the runtime.