Re: [Algorithms] My first scripting engine

[John P. <jp...@br...>]

I would also throw in that Lua's C API is significantly less burdensome 
than python's (IMHO of course).

Shawn Hargreaves wrote:

>Having spent a while looking at both Lua and Python, I don't actually think
>there is much to choose between them in terms of power.
>
>Lua is marginally smaller/cleaner, while Python is slightly bigger and
>offers more types of construct, but if you strip out the various library
>modules (as would typically be the case when embedding in a game), the
>remaining differences are nowhere near as big as they initial appear.
>
>In fact, Python without all the standard Python libraries is remarkably
>small and clean, while if Lua had an equivalent to the enormous Python
>library set, I think the result would look and feel very close to Python!
>
>Both offer first order function objects, powerful hashed containers, user
>defined iterators, a reasonable level of object orientation, and can easily
>be extended with C++ types that behave like natural built-in features.
>
>The most significant differences that I've come across so far are:
>
>Lua is potentially slightly faster, because it holds numeric data types on
>the stack, while in Python everything is an object. In practice the
>difference is negligible, though.
>
>Lua is slightly smaller.
>
>Python has a very nice slicing syntax for list/string manipulation, which
>Lua lacks.
>
>Python has more flexible syntax for optional or named function parameters.
>You can emulate such things in Lua using a table, but the syntax isn't so
>nice.
>
>Lua has better syntax for defining anonymous functions and closures: nice if
>you are using a lot of callbacks or functional programming styles. The
>Python lambda keyword is horribly restrictive in comparison.
>
>Python has three main data types: lists, dictionaries, and tuples. Lua has
>only one: the table, which is internally implemented as either an array or a
>hash table (or both) depending on the type of key. Tough to say which is
>better: Python gives the programmer more control, but if you scripts are
>going to be written by non-programmers, the Lua approach might be better
>because there is less to learn (always use a table, and it will do the right
>thing behind the scenes).
>
>
>  
>