Lua and Scripting

Cours Lua and Scripting, tutoriel & guide de travaux pratiques en pdf.

Scripting
● Scripting language x dynamic language
● scripting emphasizes inter-language communication
● Program written in two languages
● a scripting language and a system language
● System language implements the hard parts of the application
● algorithms, data structures
● little change
● Scripting glues together the hard parts
● flexible, easy to change
Scripting in Grim Fandango
[The engine] doesn’t know anything about adventure games, or talking, or puzzles, or anything else that makes Grim Fandango the game it is. It just knows how to render a set from data that it’s loaded and draw characters in that set. […] The real heroes in the development of Grim Fandango were the scripters. They wrote everything from how to respond to the controls to dialogs to camera scripts to door scripts to the in-game menus and options screens. […] A TREMENDOUS amount of this game is written in Lua. The engine, including the Lua interpreter, is really just a small part of the finished product. Bret Mogilefsky
Lua and Scripting
● Lua is implemented as a library
● Lua has been designed for scripting
● Good for embedding and extending
● Embedded in C/C++, Java, Fortan, C#, Perl, Ruby, Python, etc.
Portablility
● Runs virtually everywhere
● Symbian, Nintendo DS, PSP, PS3, Android, iOS, IBM z/OS, etc.
● Written in ANSI C
● Kernel is a free-standing application
● Can run inside the OS kernel
● Can run over the “bare metal”