Trouble getting started with Lua - lua

I wanted to learn Lua so I bought a book. The problem I'm having is finding a compiler/interpreter. I downloaded the binary compiler for Windows from http://luadist.org/ (Windows x86 (MinGW32 4.7.1)). But every time I try to start it up I just says:
The program can't start because lua53.dll is missing from your
computer. Try reinstalling the program to fix this problem.
Which I did several times to no avail. I've tried to find another compiler but this seems to be the only one... which I find hard to believe. There are "demo" compilers but I want one I can install so I can do the examples in the book. There are instructions on how to "compile" the compiler at the Lua site on Linux and Mac machines but I'm working on a Windows machine.
Any help?

ZeroBrane Studio is the best for Lua. It works on Windows, Mac, and Linux. It was specifically designed for beginners, but it a full featured IDE for writing and debugging Lua code.
https://studio.zerobrane.com/
Be sure to try the "Run as Scratchpad" feature which provides a "live-coding" experience.

Related

Starting Lua, what to use?

I'm trying to learn Lua, but I don't really know which binary to download. There's 2 choices:
Lua Binaries
Lua for Windows
The second option Lua for Windows seems to be the recommended option, but the installer weighs in at 26.6Mb, which is pretty hefty for what is supposed to be a v.lightweight language.
I'm thinking of using Lua as a scripting language for games, and perhaps as a fast development language for file processing like how Python or Ruby does it. So it must be something lightweight, not a 26.6Mb file.
Which is the appropriate one to download and start?
Luaforwindows, no doubt. It's simpler, easier and faster.
The installer comes with lots of stuff (Scite editor & several extra libs if I remember well). But the installer asks you before installing all those extra stuff. Just install the minimum and you will be fine.
Lua for Windows includes a handful of other, useful libraries and tools. The actual Lua executable included is still tiny, in the 1-2MB range as expected.
Having the extras there already will only make things easier, and disk space is cheap: go with Lua for Windows.
You may also want to check ZeroBrane Studio, which is only 4M download on Windows and is based on the same editor as SciTE that comes with Lua for Windows. ZBS also comes with 50+ Lua examples and few simple lessons to get started quickly with Lua programming.
Quoting from here.
Installation
The LuaBinaries files are intended for advanced users and programmers who want to incorporate Lua in their applications or distributions and would like to keep compatibility with LuaBinaries, so they also will be compatible with many other modules available on the Internet.
If what you want is a full Lua installation, please check other projects such as the Lua for Windows and LuaRocks.
Seems quite clear to me that you should download Lua for Windows.

Building cross-platform Delphi applications

I downloaded Lazarus, but have worked with Embarcadero Delphi IDE too. I have a question about building cross-platform Delphi applications.
How can I build them under win32 environment? I read the wiki from Lazarus site, that explains how to do it, but I still do not understand it. Is is possible to build and compile application under win32 environment for Linux and MacOS? If it is possible, can someone explain ste-by-step how to do it exactly.
EDIT:
Now is the time for talking about the new XE2 version of the Delphi IDE I think :)
Thanks
What you're asking for already exists in the lazarus wiki site, you need to read these articles.
Multiplatform Programming Guide
Cross compiling
Cross compiling for Win32 under Linux
How to Write Portable Code (nice doc from Marco van de Voort)
Buildfaq
While crosscompiling to a non windows target is possible (and not that hard), getting used to fpc/lazarus and crosscompiling in one first step is a bridge too far. This because Linux is not a very homogenous target and dealing with this variation requires some understanding how libraries and linking works on Linux. This defeats one-button downloadable cross-compile setups to "general" linux. I know, such one-button thingies that work out of the box for everyone would be great, but it is just not going to happen (or only forvery limited distribution-version combinations)
Crosscompiling with FPC is not extremely difficult or rocket science, but the amount of jargon and details can flabbergast uninitiated people, and without background knowledge it is hard to diagnose problems as a result of minor misconfigurations
I recommend to first familiarize yourself with Lazarus/FPC, and only then make the crosscompilation leap. (and the already mentioned buildfaq names some reasons).
Bottomline: install lazarus on Windows and start porting your app. If that succeeds, start using a linux install (or VM) to familiarize yourself with Linux, and Lazarus under it. You'll need a linux install anyway to test.
Only then start thinking about crosscompiling to speed up the process.
CodeTyphon is a powerful Lazarus/FPC one click easy installation package for cross platform native development. It already supports 4 CPU/OS hosts (Win32, Win64, Linux32, Linux64), and 16 CPU/OS targets (arm-Wince, arm-Linux, arm-Embedded, arm-gba, arm-nds, i386-Win32, i386-Linux, i386-FreeBSD, i386-Haiku, x86_64-Win64, x86_64-Linux, x86_64-FreeBSD, powerpc-Linux, powerpc64-Linux, sparc-Linux, sparc-Solaris). More are supported in Lazarus/FreePascal, but others are not yet integrated in CodeTyphon. Did I mention that it is free? One code to rule them all ;-)
The point is that you don't have to waste days for setting up your cross platform environment, since someone has already done the hard work for you.

Does any one know good editor available in RoR for windows?

Does any one know good editor available in RoR for windows?
If you fancy an IDE, there is Netbeans, Eclipse (Through the RadRails plugin I believe), Aptana, RubyMine*. If you want a more Textmate-ish kind, there is E-Texteditor *, Notepad ++. There is also VIM or EMACS, I think. I don't have a windows machine, so I can't verify that, but how could there not be.
I've hand some experience, on the mac side, with the IDEs available. But, I find them very "heavy". This could be because I'm on a Mac, so you might get a better experience with those since your on Windows. I'm think it has do with the way each OS supports JVM.
*Must pay for these, at least last time I checked.
Netbeans IDE

Developing in Ruby on Windows [closed]

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I'm starting a new job soon where I'm going to be developing in Ruby and Rails on a Windows machine. I haven't used Windows for years, and the likes of Textmate, Git and Bash, are an integral part of the workflow using a Mac.
So, does anybody have any suggestions or recommendations as to the best tools or work strategies to use? Or pitfalls to avoid?
In particular, of course, I'm interested in the best text editor. (I'm seriously thinking about taking the opportunity to learn Vim or Emacs, or whatever the Windows ports are called, but any other thoughts would be welcome.)
Additionally, any ideas of useful plugins, tools or programs would be appreciated.
If you think that I've completely lost my mind, then feel free to tell me too ;-)
cheers !
Ruby and Rails
RubyInstaller for Windows
RubyStack installer for Windows
Rails
Development Environment
IDEs
RubyMine
NetBeans
Aptana RadRails
Text Editors
Sublime Text 2
e (aka TextMate for Windows) (seems to have been abandoned)
Vim/Ruby
bash Environment
Cygwin
Source Control
Git
Helpful Links
Setting Up Rails Development Environment on Windows XP
RubyonWindows Blog
Is Windows a First Class Platform for Ruby?
Related Questions
Why is ruby so much slower on windows?
Limitations in running Ruby/Rails on windows
Will using an IDE with Rails hinder me?
GUI editor for Ruby in Windows
What IDE / Editor do you use for Ruby on Windows?
https://stackoverflow.com/questions/826164/a-definitive-list-of-ides-for-ruby-on-rails
Ruby On Rails with Windows Vista - Best Setup?
https://stackoverflow.com/search?q=ruby+on+windows
RubyMine is supposed to be a top notch IDE. JetBrains always makes great products.
NetBeans or e as IDEs
Here's my incredibly detailed setup guide for Windows Server 2003, which works essentially unchanged on XP Pro and Vista. See this general installation list, and modify the instructions if you get different results. They're meant for people new to programming, so they'll probably be overly explicit for your purposes.
IMO, the one thing you definitely need is a *nix-style shell. This has nothing to do with whether you like dir or ls - you need to be able to run shell scripts or you won't get very far.
git bash (comes with msysgit) is my beacon in the storm of cmd.exe windows. It's essentially bash on Windows, and lets you run almost any script that you can run on *nix. This includes all the gem command line executables.
It gets weird in a few places.
File permissions - there just isn't a great way to map between Windows ACLs and POSIX file permissions. The Cygwin people have devoted years to solving it, but it still doesn't work all the time. git bash's approach is to just not do anything when asked to do a (for example) FileUtils.chmod. That means you may need to create a few more directories by hand, and you do need to be very aware of when something is changing file permissions.
For example, when I installed the Heroku gem on Windows, it tried to set the permissions of my Heroku credentials file, which has my Heroku password in plaintext, to u+r go-rwx. You'd definitely want to change the ACLs on that file if you're on a shared machine.
Scripts vs. .bat files - I wanted to change git's default editor from vi to SCiTE (not that I don't like vi; this was for a new-user workshop and I didn't want to explain editing modes). I had to create a .bat file that was actually a shell script. See the full explanation here:
How can I set up an editor to work with Git on Windows
I am using Netbeans, which is a good overall editor (at least for me).
For simple projects I use JEdit.
You can find the link at
NetBeans IDE
You can find JEdit at JEdit
git is available on Windows: http://code.google.com/p/msysgit/ or http://kerneltrap.org/Linux/Git_on_Windows
Basically, you need to decide whether you are going to go the Cygwin route or the MingW route. Both will provide you with Bash as well.
GVim works great. I use the native port rather than the Cygwin version.
If your development life is switching to Windows then you may want your employer to invest in this:
Ruby In Steel by SapphireSteel Software
I've used it in the past when I started tinkering with Ruby on Rails, quite nice and reasonably mature now. Also it's built on Visual Studio which I still think is one of the premier development environments around.
Maybe bring a LiveCD to work with you every morning..
you can even put it on a usb flash drive, if you use a small enough distro/big enough drive...
Cygwin as command line tool
The two best RoR IDE's I've used are NetBeans and Aptana Studio. However, for the most part I stick with Notepad++ and its various plugins (Explorer and HTML tags being two important ones).
This may not be applicable in your situation (IT restrictions, etc), but another option might be virtualization. You could install VirtualBox, VMWare, or some equivalent, and run Ubuntu (or your preferred Linux distribution, of course) that way, gaining access to the full UNIX toolset.
You didn't say whether you're using Windows voluntarily. However, this line suggests to me that maybe that's the case:
"If you think that I've completely lost my mind, then feel free to tell me too"
If you have any choice in the matter, I strongly recommend using a Unix-based system instead of Windows. If you have to go through inconvenience, spend money, or jump through hoops to avoid doing Ruby/Rails development on Windows, it will be worth it.
I've had to cope with Ruby and Rails on Windows a lot recently due to legacy systems and other developers' preferences. Rails development on a Unix-based system is much more efficient. The difference is not subtle.
That said, as others have mentioned, installing mysysgit even if you aren't using Git is helpful because it comes with Git Bash which gives you a usable bash command line.
As for text editors, I like Notepad++.
NetBeans is a really nice IDE for Rails development. Decent syntax highlighting, code completion, error highlighting. Handy keyboard shortcuts for navigation. It's pretty good.
IntelliJ IDEA
I developed in RoR under Windows for a few years, it's bearable, but Linux (or Mac) is much better for this. Lots of gems and plugins are considerably harder to install on Windows (quixml, for example).
My favorite text editor under Windows is Textpad, Eclipse is also pretty good.
If you want to use ls, find, grep... in Windows console, just download some package of their Win32 ports, install them and add to your PATH (Cygwin is definitely better, but also harder to install). You might also try out Powershell, it's supposed to be a replacement for unix command line by Microsoft.
I use virtual box, putty, and xming to do the development in an isolated linux environment. I blogged the full setup here
I've struggled a lot with Rails development on Windows. At some point I needed a specific gem that didn't work on Windows. I prefer working with a VM using Vagrant
Here's a blog post I wrote, how I setup my projects with the use of Chef and Vagrant

Compatibility porting program

I am interested in trying to get a program ported to 64-bit and would like to know if it's even a good candidate for porting. I am a lighting director and have built a SUSE 11.1 Linux box for a program called MagicQ made by Chamsys (http://www.chamsys.be/download.html). I have been working on this for about 6 months now and have all hardware recognised. I am still working on stage visualizers, and I have a separate CPU/board generating the DMX512 code via PoE. I don't think getting it to run in SUSE will be a problem "it was natively built for Ubuntu".
Any help or direction is greatly appreciated!!
Unbuntu and Suse are subtlely different in how things are laid out for file sytems, home directories and such. Usually when you try to install a package on either on you need to use their own package manager programs so that all dependincies are handled and you don't need to manually try to find package 'x' version 'y' and package 'a' version 'b' just to get something working.
If you know that you have all the dependencies covered, and if you have the raw source code, you should be able to just run a compilier against the source code and have it compilied for a 64-bit processor.
Here is a link to the GCC, the GNU Compiler Collection for your reference.
Good luck with your porting project.

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