Re: unix(3lua)

[Marc Balmer <marc%msys.ch@localhost>]

> Am 19.05.2018 um 14:40 schrieb Alexander Nasonov <alnsn%yandex.ru@localhost>:
> 
> Sevan Janiyan wrote:
>> On 19/05/2018 11:36, Alexander Nasonov wrote:
>>> The main page of the repository says it's incomplete.
>> 
>> "This module does not aim to be complete, it merely contains functions
>> that I needed at some point of time"
> 
> OK, my statement wasn't very accurate but I find it very unlikely for
> one-man project to be (accidentally) complete if it doesn't aim to be
> complete.

It bears my name in the copyright, but it was actually designed an written by a team.  If it is in NetBSD, I'd say that team might even grow.


> 
>>> Does anyone plan to make it complete or near complete?
>> 
>> I was thinking along that line. Continuing on the idea of the fully
>> scriptable operating system. Why not have bindings for the items we
>> include in base, not necessarily external third party components but
>> core os and our homegrown parts (netpgp, bozo,...). This would be ideal
>> for a workshop where you want to give a taste of what's possible and
>> build up from there.
> 
> If you have time and energy to write and maintain code, I'm all for it.

I am also one of the maintainers of it, and I very much welcome co-maintaining this with Sevan.

> However, unix(3lua) will create a fragmentation: if you write code for
> POSIX-compatible OS (e.g. Linux) you use luaposix unless you're on NetBSD,
> in which case you should use unix(3lua).

No, such a fragmentation will not happen:  Unlike Perl or Python, Lua does not come with batteries includes. Lua is the language and the engine to run it.  The makers of Lua only supply a very small set of modules.  luaposix is not among them.

luaunix works as well on Linux as it does on BSD.  I have heard of large institutions relying on luaunix, just because they trust the developer to have some basic Unix knowledge...

> 
>>> Wouldn't be easier to take luaposix and add missing (NetBSD
>>> specific?) bits.
>> 
>> Seeing that it was Marc's work and he is of this parish, it was a nice
>> compliment to the other work he has done and we are lacking such a
>> component.
> 
> Marc probably voiced his concerns of luaposix on the lua-l mailing lists
> in the past but I can't find anything at the moment.
> 
> Marc, what were your arguments for not using luaposix when you wrote
> your module?
> 
> I could only find this message:
> 
> Date: Fri, 19 Dec 2014 09:39:01 +0100
> From: Marc Balmer
> To: Lua mailing list <lua-l%lists.lua.org@localhost>
> Subject: Two more Lua modules on github/mbalmer
> 
>> ...
>> The unix module contains Unix functionality I needed for some of my
>> projects like fork(), select(), etc. It is not complete nor does it
>> aim to be complete.  And it is not a replacement for luaposix either.
>> See it as a Unix grab-bag for now ;)
>> ...
> 
> Alex