For some time I wanted to learn new programming language (Scheme was on target) and now I have opportunity to design an OAT application which includes Web server and Telent access, so LuaW seems natural choice to serve both challenges in one step.
I learned Lua (just a start), can call C from Lua and vice versa, maybe I do understand closures. Think, this is a fantastic tool I would like to use.
But before digging deeper, I would like to clear my concerns.
There is nothing happening on this forum and Lua Wiki in recent months. Is there any LuaW application in production? Maybe someone can give me a confirmation of LuaW appli stability in real world. And I’ve noticed some FIXME comments in sources. What about them?
Lua is in use internally by Wavecom as well by some customers, although I don’t know whether those customers wish to be public about it. The FIXMEs in the code (and the doc!) are about features not implemented yet, or features that could be implemented in a smarter way, but there’s no known showstopper. It’s developed in a fairly agile way, meaning that users bug are generally treated very fast, especially if they’re willing to try a patch.
Open AT Lua will be delivered as a standard Open AT Plug-In, at least for the final version of Oasis 2.10, and I think in the upcoming beta versions as well. It is still under active development, but given its usability and the lack of anything remotely as powerful on the market, Wavecom decided to offer access to its early versions to developers.
There hasn’t been recent updates on the wiki because:
later versions of Open AT Lua are only tested on WIP5, which is not officially released yet (although it will eventually be made WIP4 compatible if needed).
it will be distributed in the SDK anyway.
You might have already found out that Scheme and Lua are very similar, despite the less frightening syntax of the latter. There’s even a Lua compiler that supports Lisp-like macro extension (and can easily be adapted to target Open AT Lua: just make it generate integral numbers, and compile on host rather than on target).
Those days I’ve finished my first LuaW project (didn’t take so long), medium sized (of course with web server, jQuery and amCharts included). Now sheduled for field test, hope gc will do its job.
Written somewhere else on this board:
That is completely true. Once defined and implemented needed low level C functions, all other high level tasks can be done/changed relatively easily and fast with Lua. Good old CP/M with Turbo Pascal comes to mind.
Anyway, I enjoy Lua and its Wavecom port, will never look back.