features ======== what does Sol (and other libraries) support? -------------------------------------------- The goal of Sol is to provide an incredibly clean API that provides high performance (comparable or better than the C it was written on) and extreme ease of use. That is, users should be able to say: "this works pretty much how I expected it to." For the hard technical components of Lua and its ecosystem we support, here is the full rundown: what Sol supports ----------------- * Support for Lua 5.1, 5.2, and 5.3. We achieve this through our "doc:`compatibility` header. * :doc:`Table` support: setting values, getting values of multiple (different) types - :doc:`Lazy evaluation` for nested/chained queries ``table["a"]["b"]["c"] = 24;`` - Implicit conversion to the types you want ``double b = table["computed_value"];`` * Support for callables (functions, lambdas, member functions) - Pull out any Lua function with :doc:`sol::function` ``sol::function fx = table["socket_send"];`` - Can also set callables into :doc:`operator[] proxies` ``table["move_dude"] = engine::move_dude;`` - Safety: use :doc:`sol::protected_function` to catch any kind of error + ANY kind: C++ exception or Lua erors are trapped and run through the optional ``error_handler`` variable - *Advanced:* Overloading of a single function so you don't need to do boring typechecks * User-Defined Type (:doc:`sol::usertype` in the API) support: - Set member functions to be called - Set member variables - Use free-functions that take the Type as a first argument (pointer or reference) - Support for "Factory" classes that do not expose constructor or destructor - Modifying memory of userdata in C++ directly affects Lua without copying, and - Modifying userdata in Lua directly affects C++ references/pointers ``my_class& a = table["a"];`` ``my_class* a_ptr = table["a"];`` - If you want a copy, just use value semantics and get copies: ``my_class a = table["a"];`` * Thread/Coroutine support - Use, resume, and play with :doc:`coroutines` like regular functions - Get and use them even on a separate Lua :doc:`thread` - Monitor status and get check errors * *Advanced:* Customizable and extensible to your own types if you override :doc:`getter/pusher/checker` template struct definitions. The Feature Matrix™ ------------------- The below feature table checks for the presence of something. It, however, does not actually account for any kind of laborious syntax. ✔ full support ~ partial support / wonky support ✗ no support +---------------------------+-------------+------------+----------+---------+----------+-----------+-----------+----------------+----------+ | | plain C | luawrapper | lua-intf | luabind | Selene | Sol | oolua | lua-api-pp | kaguya | | | | | | | | | | | | +===========================+=============+============+==========+=========+==========+===========+===========+================+==========+ | tables | ✔ | ✔ | ✔ | ✔ | ✔ | ✔ | ✔ | ✔ | ✔ | +---------------------------+-------------+------------+----------+---------+----------+-----------+-----------+----------------+----------+ | table chaining | ✔ | ✔ | ✔ | ✔ | ✔ | ✔ | ✔ | ✔ | ✔ | +---------------------------+-------------+------------+----------+---------+----------+-----------+-----------+----------------+----------+ | arbitrary keys | ✔ | ✔ | ✔ | ✔ | ✔ | ✔ | ✔ | ✔ | ✔ | +---------------------------+-------------+------------+----------+---------+----------+-----------+-----------+----------------+----------+ | user-defined types (udts) | ~ | ✔ | ✔ | ✔ | ✔ | ✔ | ~ | ✔ | ✔ | +---------------------------+-------------+------------+----------+---------+----------+-----------+-----------+----------------+----------+ | udts: member functions | ~ | ✔ | ✔ | ✔ | ✔ | ✔ | ~ | ✔ | ✔ | +---------------------------+-------------+------------+----------+---------+----------+-----------+-----------+----------------+----------+ | udts: variables | ~ | ~ | ~ | ~ | ~ | ✔ | ~ | ~ | ~ | +---------------------------+-------------+------------+----------+---------+----------+-----------+-----------+----------------+----------+ | stack abstractions | ~ | ✔ | ~ | ✔ | ✔ | ✔ | ✔ | ✔ | ✔ | +---------------------------+-------------+------------+----------+---------+----------+-----------+-----------+----------------+----------+ | function binding | ~ | ✔ | ✔ | ✔ | ✔ | ✔ | ✔ | ✔ | ✔ | +---------------------------+-------------+------------+----------+---------+----------+-----------+-----------+----------------+----------+ | protected function | ✔ | ✗ | ~ | ~ | ~ | ✔ | ~ | ✔ | ~ | +---------------------------+-------------+------------+----------+---------+----------+-----------+-----------+----------------+----------+ | multi-return | ~ | ✗ | ✗ | ✔ | ✔ | ✔ | ~ | ✔ | ✔ | +---------------------------+-------------+------------+----------+---------+----------+-----------+-----------+----------------+----------+ | inheritance | ~ | ✗ | ✗ | ✔ | ✔ | ✔ | ~ | ~ | ✔ | +---------------------------+-------------+------------+----------+---------+----------+-----------+-----------+----------------+----------+ | overloading | ~ | ✗ | ✗ | ✗ | ✗ | ✔ | ✗ | ✗ | ✗ | +---------------------------+-------------+------------+----------+---------+----------+-----------+-----------+----------------+----------+ | thread | ✔ | ✗ | ✗ | ✗ | ✗ | ✔ | ✗ | ✗ | ✔ | +---------------------------+-------------+------------+----------+---------+----------+-----------+-----------+----------------+----------+ | coroutines | ✔ | ✗ | ✗ | ✔ | ✔ | ✔ | ✗ | ✗ | ✔ | +---------------------------+-------------+------------+----------+---------+----------+-----------+-----------+----------------+----------+ | no-rtti support | ✔ | ✗ | ~ | ✗ | ✗ | ✔ | ✗ | ✗ | ✔ | +---------------------------+-------------+------------+----------+---------+----------+-----------+-----------+----------------+----------+ | no-exception support | ✔ | ✗ | ~ | ~ | ✗ | ✔ | ✗ | ✗ | ✔ | +---------------------------+-------------+------------+----------+---------+----------+-----------+-----------+----------------+----------+ | Lua 5.1 | ✔ | ✔ | ~ | ✔ | ✗ | ✔ | ✔ | ✔ | ✔ | +---------------------------+-------------+------------+----------+---------+----------+-----------+-----------+----------------+----------+ | Lua 5.2 | ✔ | ✔ | ✔ | ✔ | ✔ | ✔ | ✔ | ✔ | ✔ | +---------------------------+-------------+------------+----------+---------+----------+-----------+-----------+----------------+----------+ | Lua 5.3 | ✔ | ✔ | ✔ | ✔ | ✔ | ✔ | ✔ | ✔ | ✔ | +---------------------------+-------------+------------+----------+---------+----------+-----------+-----------+----------------+----------+ | luajit | ✔ | ✔ | ✔ | ✔ | ✔ | ✔ | ✔ | ✔ | ✔ | +---------------------------+-------------+------------+----------+---------+----------+-----------+-----------+----------------+----------+ | distribution | compile | header | both | compile | header | header | compile | compile | header | +---------------------------+-------------+------------+----------+---------+----------+-----------+-----------+----------------+----------+ notes on implementations ------------------------ Plain C - * Obviously you can do anything you want with Plain C, but the effort involved is astronomical in comparison to what frameworks offer * Does not scale very well (in terms of developer ease of use) * Compilation (or package manager use) is obviously required for your platform and required to use ANY of these libraries whatsoever luawrapper - * Takes the approach of writing and reading tables using ``readVariable`` and ``writeVariable`` functions * C++11 * No macros * The interface can be clunky (no table-like data structures: most things go though ``readVariable`` / ``writeVariable``) lua-intf - * Can be both header-only or compiled * C++11 * Macro-based registration (strange pseudo-language) * Fairly fast in most regards * Registering classes/"modules" in using C++ code is extremely verbose luabind - * One of the older frameworks, but has many people updating it and providing "deboostified" versions * Strange in-lua keywords and parsing to allow for classes to be written in lua - not sure if good feature; vendor lock-in to that library to depend on this specific class syntax? Selene - * member variables are automatically turned into ``obj:set_x( value )`` to set and ``obj:x()`` to get * Registering classes/"modules" in using C++ code is extremely verbose Sol - * Overloading support can get messy with inheritance, see :doc:`here` * Only (?) library that supports table-like use of variables as shown in the :doc:`sneak peek` * C++14/"C++1y" (-std=c++14, -std=c++1y, =std=c++1z) flags are used (available since GCC 4.9 and Clang 3.5) oolua - * The syntax for this library is thicker than a brick. No, seriously. `Go read the docs.`_ .. _ fn1: lua-api-pp - * Compiled, but the recommendation is to add the source files directly to your project * Userdata registration with nice, thick macros: LUAPP_USERDATA( ... ) plus a bunch of free functions that take a ``T& self`` argument * C++11-ish in some regards kaguya - * Probably the closest in implementation details and interface to Sol itself * Inspired coroutine support for Sol * Library author (satoren) is a nice guy! * C++11/14, or boostified (which makes it C++03 compatible) .. _Go read the docs.: https://oolua.org/docs/index.html