State of the Lua ecosystem

Given at Lua Workshop 2013. Web-based slides with notes at http://files.catwell.info/presentations/2013-11-lua-workshop-lua-ecosystem/.

Transcript

1. State of the ecosystem Pierre Chapuis, Lua Workshop 2013
3. Lua-the-language is successful... •  games •  extension language •  embedded •  web •  ...
4. ... but the community is small.
5. Lua grows in popularity, slowly and steadily... all on the power of a couple of good books, a mailing list and a simple design. Andrew Starks, lua-l
6. No one starts projects in Smalltalk anymore. And this is not because Smalltalk isn't wonderful to work with - it is. But... try just posting a question about Smalltalk to Stack Overflow and see how long it takes just to get answered. Try hiring a senior Smalltalk developer - good luck. [One of them] told me that he comes to a couple of Ruby conferences every year, and I said "why don't you go to Smalltalk conferences?" and he said "because there aren't any." Sarah Mei, Why hasn't Ruby won?
7. Meyerovich & Rabkin, OOPSLA 2013
9. Standard libraries
10. Five years ago, I always assumed the Python library contained the “best of breed” for all packages. These days, I tend to think the opposite. Dusty Phillips, Dead Batteries Included
11. The standard library is where modules go to die. Kenneth Reitz, Djangocong 2012
14. Penlight
15. Contributed modules
16. Wanted •  quantity: There is no module to solve my problem. •  quality: New dependency, new bugs :( Where is the maintainer? •  ease of use: How do I install this without breaking my system? •  consistency: Why does my application depend on 25 object libraries? •  discoverability: I cannot find what module solves that problem.
17. Quantity There is no module to solve my problem.
19. Number of modules in the package managers for some dynamic languages.
20. Quality (1) New dependency, new bugs :(
22. The root of all Evil •  Avoid globals in modules. •  local foo = require "foo" •  Use pl.strict in your test suite (please). •  You have tests, don't you?!
23. luafun
24. Quality (2) Where is the maintainer?
25. Ease of use How do I install this without breaking my system?
26. Number of modules divided by number of GitHub repositories created from Jan 2012 to Aug 2013.
27. People still do not use LuaRocks enough
28. Pester maintainers, it works!
29. Consistency Why does my application depend on 25 object libraries?
31. Contribute instead of reinventing
33. At least share an API
34. Incompatible ecosystems •  5.2 •  LuaJIT •  Luvit •  OpenResty •  probably others I have no answer to that.
35. Discoverability I cannot find what module solves that problem.
36. Finding a module •  LuaRocks •  Lua Wiki •  Google •  Github •  Mailing List •  Stack Overflow
37. Finding the best module
39. Suggestions Let's open discussions.
40. Programmatic releases for LuaRocks
41. Multiple maintainers for "Core" libraries •  LuaSocket •  LuaFileSystem •  LuaSec / LuaCrypto •  LuaExpat
42. style guide
43. Yes, I know that Lua module naming in the wild is a total train wreck. This is one of the biggest failures of the Lua ecosystem. Language ecosystems with user-contributed modules demand curation. Or at least some officially sanctioned conventions. Remember that next time you create your own language. Anything that attempts to retain the illusion that a flat namespace is somehow a workable solution is NOT helpful. Mike Pall, LuaJIT ML
44. Most important: contribute!
45. Thanks for listening. Questions?