Lua: how we first met November 4, 2007
Posted by nathany in : Lua , trackback
This past summer I evaluated both Apple Aperture and Adobe Lightroom for managing my digital photographs. You see, iPhoto 6 was getting a bit sluggish, Photoshop Elements even more so (not yet having Intel support). To top it off, I was considering a Digital SLR, so I’d need something that could read RAW.
Adobe Lightroom won out for me. It provided enough of the Photoshop functionality (curves, etc.) that I often wouldn’t need to launch Elements. Just as important, the reviews proclaimed Lightroom to be more responsive and less of a resource hog. So what does all this have to do with Lua?
Adobe Lightroom is programmed with C/C++/Objective-C and… 40% Lua. An interpreted scripting language making up 40% of the code, and it feels more responsive and uses less resources?! That deserves a second look…
Adobe Lightroom puts Lua’s coroutines to good use, keeping the user interface responsive while images visually rotate or exports process. Coroutines are a form of “cooperative multitasking,” where the programmer controls task-switching rather then being preempted as with “real” threads.
I’ve taken a great interest in the Lua language. The more I learn, the more intrigued I am. This blog exists in order to share these findings with you. Lua is Portuguese for moon, and “lua nova” means new moon.
Welcome to Lua, welcome to the moon…
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