[Ann] Ada 95 binding to Lua 5.0

[chris <spamoff.danx@ntlworld.com>]

Hi all,

I am pleased to announce the release of a portable binding to the Lua 
5.0 programming api.  Lua allows software developers to provide tailored 
scripting and extension facilities in their applications with a simple 
yet powerful programming API at virtually no cost (Lua is licensed under 
the terms of the MIT license).  Now Ada 95 developers on a wide range of 
platforms can utilise Lua in their applications under the same terms as 
the Lua software (yes, that's right!  It is licensed under the MIT 
license too).

A few days ago a highly experimental and featureless version of the 
binding was released, but with todays release (version 0.1) the binding 
includes most of the functionality of the C programmers API.

Notable exceptions are the debugging API and the operations on "user 
data" as defined by Lua.  These are pencilled in for 0.3/0.5 (hopefully 
soon).

This release includes:

- bindings to substantial portion of the api
- two example programs adapted from the lua book
    1. a simple command line interpreter
    2. an example of using lua for configuring applications
- a first attempt at a user manual


Future releases will include:

- binding to the debugging api
- "user data" facilities
- binding to libaux facilities
- example utilising Lua & AdaOpenGL
- better documentation


The binding can be found at

www.cyberdanx.co.uk/ada95/lua.html


Don't hesitate to email danx at cyberdanx dot co dot uk with queries, 
bug reports, patches, advice and suggestions!


Enjoy!
Chris