SharkD <mik### [at] gmailcom> wrote:
> I agree with all your points so far. I'd just like to add that I like
> the Lua scripting language because it has a small footprint and comes
> without a lot of baggage. However, some might *prefer* all the baggage
> that comes with a language such as Python.

I've never had a look at Lua - until right now. I guess I'd like it, too.

As a matter of fact, I guess it would serve as the ideal basis for a next
generation SDL:

- It comes with a free parser designed to be integrated into other software.

- It runs on a virtual machine. (someone say "functions" and "rendering-time
execution"!)

- It allows to parse strings into code, and execute it (someone say "macro"!);
or (didn't check but simply expect it) save the code to file for later
execution, like those height field macros do.

- I think the syntax is not ideal, and a few features are missing (like native
vector support); however, with Lua being free open source, nothing hinders us
from modifying the language to suit the needs of POV-Ray.

- It includes a host of features I would want to see in a POV 4 SDL anyway, like
multithreading support (would need to be checked though whether it could
actually benefit from SMP, or whether that would require additional work);
functions returning a list of values; user data types being simulated by
associative arrays, with a special shorthand form to access them.


As a matter of fact, if Lua was a good deal closer to C, I might already be
jumping up shouting "that's our language!"

So maybe the way to go is take Lua as a basis (it seems to have a very well
designed framework), and just modify/extend the language syntax to better suit
POV's needs.

We definitely want vector literals, that's for sure.

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