Re: Tcl vs. Lua

Thank you.. This was very helpful.. it tells me I shouldn't bother with Lua,
.. or do I?
They say it's used a lot for "Games programming". What makes it suitable for
games programming, other than it's cross platform features? Doesn't cross
platform usually means it can't take advantage of hardware specifics?

The way I heard about Lua was when I was looking for a "Setup Wizard" type
program to create installers for my own software, like Install Shield, Wise,
etc. I came across one that featured embedded "Lua scripting" to do install
operations.
But wouldn't TCL be much more suitable for this? I sure thing so.

It seems Lua's strengths is smaller footprint and better performance than
TCL. And they said it runs on mobile devices too. TCL is too slow for mobile
devices, I was told on here.

Lua also seems to allow easy integration with C/C++ and extensible.. how is
this different from a tcl 'stub' ?

One thing that appeals a bit to me about Lua, is that it comes with a
'compiler' that turns script code into bytecode. No such free meal with TCL
(though I heard ActiveState has a commercial solution).

Lisa

"Cameron Laird" <claird@lairds.us> wrote in message
news:7g4d83-fs9.ln1@lairds.us...
> In article <1135859377.142907.11560@g43g2000cwa.googlegroups.com>,
> Lisa Pearlson <reageer@yahoo.com> wrote:
>>Coincidentally I came across Lua ( http://lua.org ).
>>Seems their goals, portability, embeddability, extendability, are
>>similar to Tcl.
>>Just like Tcl, I had never heard of Lua, but they claim it to be
>>simple, fast, etc.
>>
>>So, I can't help wonder how Tcl compares to Lua.
>>Does anyone here know Lua? I'm sure each has their strengths and
>>weaknesses. I'm only interested in what are Tcl's advantages over Lua.
>>
>>Lisa
>>
>
> Tcl constitutes a far richer programming environment.
> Lua is more minimal in its run-time impact.
>
> Tcl supports Unicode and regular expressions more fully
> than Lua.
>
> Tcl has Starpacks, stubs, and so on.
>
> Tcl/Tk is ahead of TkLua.
>
> There are more Tcl books.
>
> Some prefer EIAS to the impressive mileage Lua gets out
> of dictionary-based metaprogramming.
>
> Lua's a wonderful language. It also remains a niche
> language. Tcl comes much closer to universality.
Received on Tue Jan 3 03:09:40 2006