[ANNOUNCE] Lua 3.0 -- an extensible extension language

* What is Lua?
    Lua is a simple, yet powerful, language for extending applications.
    Lua has been developed by TeCGraf, the Computer Graphics Technology Group
    of PUC-Rio, the Pontifical Catholic University of Rio de Janeiro, Brazil.
    Dozens of industrial products developed by TeCGraf use Lua.


* Some features of Lua
    + simple syntax (Pascal-like);
    + powerful data description constructs (e.g., associative arrays);
    + user-controlled type constructors;
    + extensible semantics with tag methods;
    + garbage collection;
    + Lua programs are compiled into bytecodes, which are then interpreted;
    + truly portable, written in ANSI C.


* Availability
    The latest version of Lua is always available at the following locations:
        In Brazil: ftp://ftp.icad.puc-rio.br/pub/lua/lua.tar.gz
        In Canada: ftp://csg.uwaterloo.ca/pub/lhf/lua/lua.tar.gz
        In Germany: ftp://ftp.uni-trier.de/pub/languages/lua/lua.tar.gz
        In Greece: ftp://ftp.ntua.gr/pub/lang/lua/lua.tar.gz
        Home page: http://www.tecgraf.puc-rio.br/lua/
        Meta page: http://www.tecgraf.puc-rio.br/lua/meta.html
    The current version is 3.0


* Changes since version 2.5 (no versions between 2.5 and 3.0)
    + NEW CONCEPT: "tag methods".
        Tag methods replace fallbacks as the meta-mechanism for extending the
        semantics of Lua. Whereas fallbacks had a global nature, tag methods
        work on objects having the same tag (e.g., groups of tables).
        Existing code that uses fallbacks should work without change.
    + new, general syntax for constructors {[exp] = exp, ... }.
    + support for handling variable number of arguments in functions (varargs).
    + support for conditional compilation ($if ... $else ... $end).
    + cleaner semantics in API simplifies host code.
    + better support for writing libraries (auxlib.h).
    + better type checking and error messages in the standard library.
    + luac can now also undump.


* Legal matters
    Lua is freely available for both academic and commercial purposes.


* Contacting the authors
    Send your comments, bug reports and anything else to lua@tecgraf.puc-rio.br.
    Please send us email if you download Lua so that we can know how far it goes.
    For reporting bugs, try also the mailing list: lua-l@tecgraf.puc-rio.br


--
--
Luiz Henrique de Figueiredo http://csg.uwaterloo.ca/~lhf/
Computer Systems Group, Department of Computer Science, University of Waterloo
Waterloo, Ontario, Canada N2L 3G1 (519) 888-4567-1-5517, fax (519) 746-5422
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