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Comment by alberth

1 year ago

I've always wanted to recreate a Python like syntax for Lua, this might be a good guide for that.

Around the time when CoffeeScript was popular, there was also https://moonscript.org/ for Lua. Made by the very same prolific Leaf who authored this DSL tutorial.

  • Yup, and it's still in active production use (itch.io, for example).

    There's even a fork of moonscript, called yuescript, which has a speedier parser, and includes macro's. Effectively, it's moonscript-2.0, and it's bundled directly into the dora-ssr game engine (the same dev is involved with both).

    Of course, the "big dog" in the compile-to-lua space is fennel. The great thing with all of these options is that they don't have a runtime component- it's all lua semantics, all the way down. So you can mix & match from project to project, as your whim takes you - and all the while you're really just gaining more experience in building lua solutions (while not having to fight against some of lua's syntax)