Foreign Function Interface

Mike

Does alien work on LuaRT? I know that PUC Lua includes in general do, but there may be some issues with the different handling of strings.

Are there plans for a built in FFI along the lines of LuaJIT (which is a fork of Lua 5.1 with 5.2 comparability features)?

Samir

I think alien should work, I don't have already used it.

I don't have plan to add FFI to LuaRT, as the codebase is growing rapidly and adding FFI will increase considerably executables size.

If someone need C interoperability, the simple thing to do is to just write a binary module (and using FFI is more complicated !)

LuaRT main goal is to facilitate Lua programming on the Windows operating system without the need for C interoperability (limits the use of binary modules or FFI layers)

steve64

is there a simple example of binary module source code working with LuaRT?

Samir

All existing binary modules written for Lua 5.4 are working seamlessly with LuaRT.

I'm currently working on a tutorial on how to build a simple LuaRT binary module (with LuaRT specific features such as module properties, and module finalizers)

As for an example, you have the crypto.c file located in the src\crypto\crypto.c that is simple to understand. This file contains the crypto module registration function with all the module functions.

steve64

I'm trying to write my custom binary module in C.
I need to use a 64-bit compiler but I'm facing issues in linking functions like luaL_checkversion(),
luaL_setfuncs(), etc
Where are the 64-bit Lua libraries I can use when linking my module to generate a DLL?

Samir

You just need to link to the lua54.dll directly or using the liblua54.a library (using -llua54) both generated during compilation.

Btw I've put a gist with an example of a LuaRT binary module : [Login to see the link]

The associated tutorial will come soon !

steve64

I'm using the 64-bit Studio installed from LuaRT-1.0.2-x64.exe
The lua54.dll found under this environment seems 32-bit, or at least the 64-bit compiler says so.

Samir

LuaRT Studio is a 32bits app using a 32bit LuaRT interpreter, even with the x64 package.

LuaRT Studio is based on Zerobrane Studio, and don't provide a x64 version, as it needs to recompile all the dependencies to x64, which means a lot of work.

See [Login to see the link]

steve64

So what’s the purpose of the LuaRT Studio x64 package?

Samir

There is no LuaRT Studio x64 package...

You are probable confused with the LuaRT x64 distribution which contains the runtime, the interpreters, QuickRT and rtc all compiled in 64 bits, but LuaRT Studio remains in 32 bits version.

steve64

Now it's more clear.
I'm able to create my custom Lua module as 64-bit DLL and use it from a 64-bit Lua testbench.
I can also use rtc.exe to generate a 64-bit standalone testbench.
I think the only limit is that I can't run 64-bit applications (and using 64-bit DLL) from the LuaRT Studio IDE.
Do you confirm?

Samir

Great !
Yes for the moment LuaRT Studio don't support 64bits LuaRT. It's on my todo list📋

Samir

Update :
Was kind of pain but I have a working version of LuaRT Studio that have full x64 support, with working local console and debugger, and all the x64 LuaRT toolchain (interpreter and compiler).

Should be available with the next version of LuaRT 😃

steve64

Samir Great! Looking forward to put my hands on...