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Lua for Elixir

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Re: Lua for Elixir

#31

Post by sodapopcan »

bn-usd-mistake wrote: post #15
__jonas wrote: post #13

Earlier quoted context omitted.

It kind of is though, regardless of what the LLM did there, the 'happy path' with something like Phoenix is using the phx.new and the generators which gives you a ton of files and structure that is a bit overwhelming for people used to more 'minimalist' web frameworks. Check this out this guide from the Phoenix docs: https://hexdocs.pm/phoenix/json_and_apis.html That's a ton of stuff just to return some JSON from an…

Isn't Phoenix more like Django (rather than Flask) which would also generate multiple files?

Yes, and the same point should apply to Django from Flask. I think the point being made is that it's not immediately obvious that Elixir does have a microframework in Plug and that is a fair assessment. Just from my own observations this is because there is very little interest in such a thing (it's not zero, but it's low). Most of us have realized that using micro-frameworks leads you to inventing Phoenix/Django/Rails anyway so why not start there? Phoenix especially is pretty lightweight, even with "all those files." I think making Plug more prominent even in the Phoenix docs wouldn't be a terrible idea.

Re: Lua for Elixir

#32

Post by benwilber0 »

rickcarlino wrote: post #6

We used Luerl, the underlying Lua engine, in production for years as a sandboxed scripting environment for FarmBot devices back in the day. Users could execute scripts directly on the device to control peripherals. It was a solid library and the community support was great. From an ergonomics perspective, developers preferred this approach over API calls. I am surprised more projects don’t provide a Lua scripting lay…

> I am surprised more projects don’t provide a Lua scripting layer.

Completely agree. I've been adding Lua scripting support to pretty much everything I make now. Most recently my programmable SSE server [1]. It's extended the functionality far beyond anything that I would have had the time and patience to do myself. Lua is such a treat.

[1] https://github.com/benwilber/tinysse

Re: Lua for Elixir

#33

Post by prophesi »

johnisgood wrote: post #29
ffsm8 wrote: post #26

Earlier quoted context omitted.

You gotta be trolling... You're literally responding to someone pointing out you don't need multiple files in elixir. And the same is true for Java and kotlin. Heck even the official spring boots demo videos define everything in a single file nowadays. Multiple files is just a convention, because otherwise your project will become unhandy eventually. That applies to Go as well.

I am talking about the typical / usual case. In fact, you typically use "mix phx.new" for projects using Phoenix in Elixir, and it creates lots of files, as opposed to "import ..." in a single Go file. I never said that it is impossible to do in Elixir (or Java), but it is not the typical case.

That's the typical use case if you want a web server. If you're writing for low-level devices, you'd use `mix nerves.new project_name`. If you're writing an Elixir app that won't be a web server, you'd use `mix new project_name`. If you're writing an elixir script, you'd use `touch script_name.exs`

Re: Lua for Elixir

#34

Post by johnisgood »

prophesi wrote: post #33
johnisgood wrote: post #29

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I am talking about the typical / usual case. In fact, you typically use "mix phx.new" for projects using Phoenix in Elixir, and it creates lots of files, as opposed to "import ..." in a single Go file. I never said that it is impossible to do in Elixir (or Java), but it is not the typical case.

That's the typical use case if you want a web server. If you're writing for low-level devices, you'd use `mix nerves.new project_name`. If you're writing an Elixir app that won't be a web server, you'd use `mix new project_name`. If you're writing an elixir script, you'd use `touch script_name.exs`

Yes, of course. You are right.

Re: Lua for Elixir

#36

Post by victorbjorklund »

gilgamesh3 wrote: post #19

Cool project, congrats. I am trying to understand why would anyone prefer to use Lua to create script instead of Elixir, which supports running scripts. While Lua has lots of users the language just have too many wrong design choices. If I had the choice between Elixir and Lua for scripts I would use Elixir every time.

This is more for your apps users. Like lets say you have a CRM saas written in Elixir. Then you can allow your users to script things in your app with Lua. If you allow them to use Elixir running in your app you might allow someone to hack your app.

Re: Lua for Elixir

#37

Post by victorbjorklund »

johnisgood wrote: post #29
ffsm8 wrote: post #26

Earlier quoted context omitted.

You gotta be trolling... You're literally responding to someone pointing out you don't need multiple files in elixir. And the same is true for Java and kotlin. Heck even the official spring boots demo videos define everything in a single file nowadays. Multiple files is just a convention, because otherwise your project will become unhandy eventually. That applies to Go as well.

I am talking about the typical / usual case. In fact, you typically use "mix phx.new" for projects using Phoenix in Elixir, and it creates lots of files, as opposed to "import ..." in a single Go file. I never said that it is impossible to do in Elixir (or Java), but it is not the typical case.

Typical no one writes a large web app in a single Go-file.

Re: Lua for Elixir

#39

Post by rdtsc »

gilgamesh3 wrote: post #19

Cool project, congrats. I am trying to understand why would anyone prefer to use Lua to create script instead of Elixir, which supports running scripts. While Lua has lots of users the language just have too many wrong design choices. If I had the choice between Elixir and Lua for scripts I would use Elixir every time.

Lua can help if you're handing this over to someone else not just devs who know Elixir.

Also, as the sibling post mentioned, in this case Lua is completely interpreted in an Erlang process. That allows a good amount of sandboxing, they have isolated heaps already and you can control memory limits and other resource usages, and all that in a relatively tiny footprint of a few KBs.

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