Re: Why Lua is not more popular

I new to Lua since I wrote my first Lua program about two months ago. I am a computer science professor with interests in programming languages, software architecture/engineering, and concurrent/parallel programming. I am teaching a class in which we are using Lua to explore issues in multiparadigm programming and programming language design.

(1) Although having a wide variety of application libraries is not essential to what I am doing in my class, I find it difficult (as others have mentioned) to determine what libraries and tools are available and are good matches for particular purposes.

The only library I have tried to use is LPEG.  It works quite well, although I found some of the documentation difficult to decipher.

(2) A compilation of "best practices" or "good practices" or even "bad practices to avoid" would be helpful.  ...a Lua Cookbook?  Lua design patterns and idioms?

(3) Although the PiL is quite good, there do not seem to be many other examples or teaching materials available.

For example, I decided to begin my course with discussion of functional programming in the Lua context. Lua works reasonably for FP, but I do not find an abundance of good examples (from my perspective of a person who has taught Haskell and Scala). I am developing examples of my own or translating from other languages, but the process is more productive if a teacher can leverage an existing base of good examples.