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<!DOCTYPE html PUBLIC "-//W3C//DTD HTML 4.01 Transitional//EN">
<html><head>
<meta content="text/html; charset=ISO-8859-1" http-equiv="content-type"><title>wxLua FAQ</title>
<meta content="John Labenski" name="author"></head><body>
<h2><u>wxLua
2.8.10 - FAQ</u></h2>
<ol>
<li><a href="#Why_wxLua">Why wxLua?</a></li>
<ol>
<li><a href="#Whats_best_for_my_needs:_wxLua">What's
best for my needs: wxLua, wxPython, wxSomethingElse?</a></li>
<li><a href="FAQ.html#Can_I_use_wxLua_as_script_interpreter">Can
I use wxLua as script interpreter embedded in my own C++ applications?</a></li>
</ol>
<li><a href="#How_to_Learn_wxLua">How to learn
wxLua</a></li>
<ol>
<li><a href="#Read_the_wxLua_documentation">Read
the wxLua documentation</a></li>
<li><a href="#Read_the_C_wxWidgets_documentation">Read
the C++ wxWidgets documentation</a></li>
<li><a href="#Run_and_trace_through_the_samples">Run
and trace through the samples</a></li>
</ol>
<li><a href="#Programming_in_wxLua">Programming
in wxLua</a></li>
<ol>
<li><a href="#wxStrings">wxStrings?</a></li>
<li><a href="#wxArrayString_and_wxSortedArrayString">wxArrayString
and wxSortedArrayString?</a></li>
<li><a href="#wxArrayInt">wxArrayInt?</a></li>
<li><a href="#When_and_how_should_you_delete_objects">When
and how should you delete() objects?</a></li>
<li><a href="#Why_do_the_samples_use_the_function">Why
do the samples use the function main() and is it special to wxLua?</a></li>
<li><a href="#Why_are_the_error_messages_for_a_class">Why
are the arguments shifted +1 for error messages from class member
function calls?</a></li>
</ol>
</ol>
<hr size="2" width="100%">
<ol>
<li>
<h3><a name="Why_wxLua"></a>Why
wxLua?</h3>
</li>
<ul>
<li>Because the Lua
language is easy and "fun" to program in. </li>
<li>It
vaguely looks like BASIC or C which many people are familiar with.</li>
<li>The code is very readable, almost no special
notation, gotchas, or oddball constructs that require a large
shift in thinking from BASIC or C.</li>
<li>Size : The Lua
interpreter itself is ~100Kb, wxWidgets adds the remaining few Mb.</li>
<li>Speed : Lua is one of the fastest interpreted languages,
see
the Great Computer Language Shootout.</li>
<li>Again, why
Lua? See <a href="http://www.lua.org/about.html">http://www.lua.org/about.html</a></li>
</ul>
<ol>
<li>
<h4><a name="Whats_best_for_my_needs:_wxLua"></a>What's
best
for my needs: wxLua, wxPython, wxSomethingElse?</h4>
</li>
<ul>
<li>It depends:
wxPython has a much larger footprint and greater overhead
than wxLua, but it does provide more add-ons from the Python standard
library.</li>
<li>On the other hand, wxLua is as large as
the wxWidgets library + ~100Kb for Lua + ~500Kb for the wxLua
library.</li>
<li>wxLua can
be easily interfaced with C++ code making it a powerful
extension language, which is exactly the intent of its
designers.</li>
<li>In conclusion, if you want to write an
entire application in a
scripting language and you need things supported by Python which are
not present in wxLua out-of-the-box, then you should use wxPython.
Instead, if you want to write applications with little overhead or
extend your C++ applications, go for wxLua.</li>
</ul>
<li>
<h4><a name="Can_I_use_wxLua_as_script_interpreter"></a>Can
I
use wxLua as script interpreter embedded in my own C++ applications?</h4>
</li>
<ul>
<li>Yes!
That's explained on the wxLua homepage. </li>
<li>This
is one of the strong
points of wxLua: it can be a lightweight, fast interpreter to extend
your application and let the user customize it... </li>
<li>You
may create as
many wxLua interpreters in a single program as you like.</li>
</ul>
</ol>
<li>
<h3><a name="How_to_Learn_wxLua"></a>How
to Learn wxLua</h3>
</li>
<ol>
<li>
<h4><a name="Read_the_wxLua_documentation"></a>Read
the wxLua documentation</h4>
</li>
<ul>
<li>wxlua.html is the manual for wxLua that describes the
Lua language as well as where the wxWidgets C++ are placed in Lua and
how to use them.</li>
<li>wxluaref.html is an autogenerated document that can be
thought of as a reference manual of what wxLua binds from wxWidgets. It
also has usage notes for the cases where wxLua differs from C++
wxWidgets.</li>
<li>binding.html describes how to write your own bindings
for a C or C++ library, but people who will only write Lua code should
also read it to be able to interpret the wxluaref.html document.</li>
</ul>
<li>
<h4><a name="Read_the_C_wxWidgets_documentation"></a>Read
the C++ wxWidgets documentation</h4>
</li>
<ul>
<li>wxLua is mapped very closely to wxWidgets
which means that descriptions for the functions and values there also
apply to wxLua. See the wxluaref.html document to verify that this is
the case and any non typical behavior will be clearly marked.</li>
<li>See the wxWidgets Wiki for examples of
code, beginner howtos, and other useful bits of information
that might be useful.</li>
<li>See wxPython documentation and their Wiki, but note
that wxLua follows the C++ notation a little closer than wxPython does.</li>
</ul>
<li>
<h4><a name="Run_and_trace_through_the_samples"></a>Run
and trace through the samples</h4>
</li>
<ul>
<li>The samples try to show off various classes and their
usage.</li>
<li>unittest.wx.lua is used to confirm that wxLua is
operating properly, however it provides a wealth of information about
what is allowed in terms of calling functions, casting classes to other
classes, using virtual functions, and derived functions.</li>
<li>binding.wx.lua traverses the C structs that store the
data used for wxLua and it's worth taking the time to browse them to
see how it all fits together.</li>
</ul>
</ol>
<li>
<h3><a name="Programming_in_wxLua"></a>Programming
in wxLua</h3>
</li>
<ol>
<li>
<h4><a name="wxStrings"></a>wxStrings?</h4>
</li>
<ul>
<li>wxLua uses Lua strings and so all functions that take
or return a wxString take or return a Lua string.</li>
<li>However, you can also use a wxString if you really want.</li>
</ul>
<li>
<h4><a name="wxArrayString_and_wxSortedArrayString"></a>wxArrayString
and wxSortedArrayString?</h4>
</li>
<ul>
<li>All functions that take a wxArrayString or
wxSortedArrayString can also take a numerically indexed table of
strings.</li>
<li>Functions
that return wxArrayStrings or wxSortedArrayStrings will return a
wxArrayString or wxSortedArrayString unless specified otherwise in
wxluaref.html</li>
</ul>
<li>
<h4><a name="wxArrayInt"></a>wxArrayInt?</h4>
</li>
<ul>
<li>All functions that take a wxArrayInt can also take a
numerically indexed table of numbers.</li>
<li>Functions that return wxArrayInts will return a
wxArrayInt unless specified otherwise in wxluaref.html.</li>
</ul>
<li>
<h4><a name="When_and_how_should_you_delete_objects"></a>When
and how should you delete() objects?</h4>
</li>
<ul>
<li>You should read the subsection "C++ Classes
CLASS_NAME" of the "Programming in wxLua" section of the wxlua.html
manual.</li>
<li>In
short, all objects that you create that deal with graphics should be
delete()ed as soon as they're no longer used. Functions that take a
"const
wxPen& pen" or any wxObject derived class
that are passed
to a function that is const and not a pointer* will make a
refed
copy of them and so you may delete them.</li>
<li>Use
the function "table = wxlua.GetGCUserdataInfo()" to get a table of
items that are tracked and either have an active variable pointing to
them or are waiting to be garbage collected.</li>
<li>Class objects that have the <i>%delete</i>
tag in their declaration (see wxluaref.html) will be automatically
garbage collected or can be delete()ed with the wxLua added function
for
the class. There are, of course, exceptions and these occur when you
pass the object to a function with the <i>%ungc</i> tag on
the parameter you pass the object to. The ungarbage collect tag
specifies that the object is now owned by something else and you can no
longer delete it in wxLua.</li>
<li>Bottom line - don't worry about delete()ing anything
except:</li>
<ul>
<li>Graphics objects (for MSW really).</li>
<li>Classes that specifically
state (in wxluaref.html) that you should delete() them because the
garbage collector may not do so soon enough.</li>
<li>Objects that may be very large, like a wxImage(1000,
1000).</li>
</ul>
</ul>
<li>
<h4><a name="Why_do_the_samples_use_the_function"></a>Why
do the samples use the function main() and is it special to wxLua?</h4>
</li>
<ul>
<li>There's nothing special about the function main() other
than that it's a common name for an entry point into a program.</li>
<li>It
is often helpful and a good idea to encapsulate the program
initialization code within a function so that you can use local
variables and not pollute the global table with temporary variables
that won't be needed again.</li>
<li>Additionally, it allows you to break out of this
initialization code at any point by putting <span style="font-style: italic;">"do return end"</span>
inside of the function for debugging, as opposed to wrapping parts you
don't want using <span style="font-style: italic;">"if
false then ... end"</span>.</li>
</ul>
<li>
<h4><a name="Why_are_the_error_messages_for_a_class"></a>Why
are the arguments shifted +1 for error messages from class member
function calls?</h4>
</li>
<ul>
<li>Because the ':' calling convention is syntaxic sugar
for putting the 'self' as the first parameter.</li>
<li><i>s = wx.wxSize(1, 2); s:Set(3, 4)</i>
is the same as <i>s.Set(s, 3, 4)</i> and the
first parameter is always the self, therefore <i>s.Set(s,
"hello", 4)</i> or <i>s:Set("hello", 4)</i> will
give an error that parameter 2 is not a
number.</li>
<li>Unfortunately
there is no way to tell whether the user
has used the '.' or ':' calling convention and so the error message
cannot be tailored for both static and nonstatic member
functions. Just remember that the first parameter for nonstatic class
member functions called using the ':' notation is the 'self'.</li>
</ul>
</ol>
</ol>
</body></html>