Simpson:
Lua is C and it is fast and unlike MACH3, MACH4 pre compiles all of the functions so it *should* be indistinguishable if a script or native code is running.
Sterling:
Lua is most definitely NOT C and to confuse or compare the two from this perspective is unlikely to produce anything useful.
What is the source of your information?
You evidently don't understand what makes a SCRIPTING language a SCRIPTING language or you wouldn't need to ask that question. However, from the Lua site - Page 1 para 1.
Lua is dynamically typed, runs by interpreting bytecode for a register-based virtual machine, and has automatic memory management with incremental garbage collection,
These are (some) FUNDAMENTAL language defining characteristics. Not ONE of them applies to C.
You evidently think similar syntax is THE defining factor in language comparison. You also evidently misunderstand the term "compile" in that you think "compile" automatically implies the target is machine code. It does not. As a scripting language it would not make sense to compile Lua to machine code.
any C programmer can look at any of the code and clearly recognize it as C code.
What a silly thing to say - I've been programming professionally in C (and many other languages) for over 30 years and I see Lua as Lua. Just as any C programmer looking at Java would see it as Java just as any C programmer looking at C# would see it as C#. Why do you assume that the whole world sees things as you do after your five minutes of exposure?
Who ever heard of Lua?
Literally thousands - if not hundreds of thousands of people who use it all the time. Why oh why do you think nothing exists until YOU'VE heard of it?
Lua looks like C, walks like C and quacks like C
On a dark night, to those who are not that familiar with ducks, it might LOOK like a duck but it most certainly does not WALK or QUACK anything like a duck.
You conveniently side stepped my contention that the author and org site refer to Lua as 'based on C' and instead launch into some esoteric definition of a scripting language. The line you quoted has to to with Lua being embedded . . which I already stated. I also already stated that you are CORRECT in that Lua is not LITERALLY yet another flavor of actual 'C'. What more do you want? I don't understand what your rant is all about.
You also have your own definition of 'compiled' which for some reason is only valid if the end result is machine code. Instead of educating me, you should be informing Lua and the MACH4 developers and anyone else who does not have your 30 years of experience and is using the term 'compiled' all over the place. Egad! What is wrong with these people?
On a dark night, for those not familiar with forums, it may seem that the alleged thousands of people who know all about a new scripting language has some relevance to this conversation. Your incorrect assertion that I somehow control what the 'WORLD' thinks is also irrelevant. I never said anything at all about the 'WORLD'. I have two words for you to contemplate: HOBBY FORUM followed by 'where people have posted that they are lamenting having to learn a 'new' language just to use MACH4.
You expanded this from a local forum to the 'WORLD' and from a genealized observation to an Uber Tech Debate that really has no bearing on MACH4 . . at all. Behaving as if I purchased commercial time on CNN to spread some contrived self serving evil agenda is a bit over the top, don't you think? Geeze, get a grip.
You clearly also turned this into a personal attack. Very naughty, especially for a moderator. No soup for you!
Let me recap what ACTAULLY happened; SOME members of a group that I belong to was lamenting what they perceived as a large learning curve to climb as part of a move to MACH4, namely Lua.
ALL I said was "Hey guys, not so bad, the part you see is like C" I left out the part where I said "Except those of you 'hobby guys who are worried about learning a new language' and yet are also computer scientists who author entire scripting languages and write compilers. For YOU guys, LUA is very different."
Sorry I missed mentioning that last part and thanks for filling in the blanks. Now everyone has a clear picture of my ignorance and will not be swayed by my heretical ramblings.
If I promise to behave, and then you won't need to spend so much time critically evaluating every word I post, could you then possibly put those 30 years of professional C experience to good use by writing some freaking documentation for MACH4? Pretty please. I'll be good, I promise.