Golua - Microsoft open sources Lua 5.3 engine written in Go

in #programming6 years ago

There are a few Lua implementations written in Go already, but Microsoft found none that target Lua 5.3, so they set out to develop their own as MIT licensed Open Source, with a focus on better error handling and debugging, clean and idiomatic Go APIs, and more closely following the Lua spec than other implementations. It's called Golua and is on Github, from the Microsoft Azure team.

Screenshot_2018-11-17 Lua about.png

Screenshot from the Lua homepage, since Golua doesn't have one yet :)

One commenter on Hacker News was quick to point out his own Lua 5.3 engine written in Go, also called Golua. Oops :) But the goals are probably still very different. Using the same name is unfortunate however.

There aren't any examples or documentation for Microsoft's Golua yet, they didn't expect anyone to notice it that soon after putting it on Github, which seems a bit weird, of course people notice it when a giant company releases something new and both Go and Lua are very popular. Quote:

Eventually we will add more documentation to the README. We honestly didn't think people would discover (let alone use) this project the day we open-sourced it. So it's been a pleasant surprise, but one that caught us off guard.

Why is Microsoft even doing this you might ask, and why do they use Google's Go language for the implementation and not for example Rust? Microsoft apparently wants to use it as an embedded language in Helm, which is written in Go.

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Huh! I did not even know about this, but the good news here is that they are going open-source. What could be more interesting than seeing big companies like this going open-source? I am a big fan of anything that goes open source as it gives me the chances to look into the code behind the curtain and also, try to learn new stuff. In fact, the effect it has on the community is impressive because you will find a lot of people coming together with unique ideas on how the project could be improved. Well, I guess they discovered the advantage of open sourcing it, and they went for it.
I was going through some of your previous posts (1,2...), and I discovered that you have this passion for open source project and you are also working on your project which is cool. Honestly, I like to see more dApps and micro service built on top of the Steem blockchain. It makes the blockchain more essential and widely used.

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Did you know that there is Utopian.io? Utopian is a rewarding platform that empowers open source contributors and project owners. It uses the POW (Proof of Work) concept built on the Steem blockchain to reward the contributors. Utopian has different categories to welcome almost any kind of contribution made to support or promote an open source project (e.g., Ideas, bug-hunting, visibility, development, copywriting, graphics design, blogs, translations and so much more). Since you are actively working on your project, why not contribute your effort via Utopian? I think it would be an excellent plus to boost the project's development. You could even create task-requests on Utopian (@utopian.tasks usually resteem every TRs) allowing other developers, graphics designer, etc to support your project. Utopian have been very helpful and I am inviting you to start using Utopian service. You might want to check this post out or Utopian official blog page @utopian-io to see how long Utopian has come and what Utopian plans to do next.

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Microsoft has been doing a lot of Open Source recently. Bryan Lunduke fears it's part of their "embrace, extend, extinguish" strategy, which boils down to embracing a project, adding proprietary extension, and then killing the competition off. He's not the only one, when Microsoft bought Github which is the central point of failure in Open Source right now, tons of people left Github in protest. Personally, I have no idea what to think :) I know some cool people working at Microsoft, but companies that get as big as Microsoft should always be taken with a grain of salt, so for the moment I can see both sides' arguments and support neither point of view fully.

Thanks for your overview of Utopian.io! I've heard about it but haven't taken the time yet to check it out, I really should do that now that Columns for Steem is Open Source and Steem Observatory will follow shortly once I got the code prepared for release on Github :)

I do plan to put all my projects I've written over the past few decades on Github as Open Source, as long as they're useful and in a workable state. I've written so many projects over the years that I either never published or that I had to stop working on because of time concerns, but maybe by Open Sourcing those, some of them can be made useful again :)

We would love to have you contributing via Utopian to grow your projects. Get in touch with us . on Discord and we can guide you through the process https://discord.gg/azdmM3v

Will do, thanks! :)

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