Embedding Lua in C: Using Lua from inside C.
Requirments:
1: The Lua Sources.
2: A C compiler - cc/gcc/g++ for Unix, and Visual C++ for Windows.
Other compilers should under Windows, basically any C compiler - I will cover compiling under Windows at the end of the toturial.
This tutorial will work under any OS which has a C compiler, and which Lua has compiled succesfully on. Though the process for compiling with different compilers on different platforms may be different - In this tutorial I will cover compiling on Unix systems and Windows systems.
For those who don't know, the Lua programming language was made to be a smimple and small scripting language which people could embed into larger applications, especially applications written in C. The advantage of embedding any scripting language (ie. Perl, Python, Ruby, etc) into a larger application was to give the user using your program a 'macro' language in which they could customize the program to suit them. Many developers even create their own 'macro' languages specifically for their applications. For a real world example of this in action - Take a look at the Microsoft Office software on the Windows platform. Microsoft Office applications like Excel and Word use a macro language called 'VBA' which enables the user to create... You guessed it, macros. Of course you could do what you wanted with it, like any other language. VBA ('Visual Basic for Applications') is basically a cut down version of Visual Basic.
Another real world example would be the famous text editor (On Unix platforms) Emacs, which uses Lisp as it's macro language.
So in this tutorial I will show you how to embed the Lua scripting language into your C applications.
To start with lets create a very basic Lua script and save it as "script.lua":
-- Start
-- Script: script.lua
print("I am using Lua from within C")
-- End
There, told you it was a very basic script!
When we embed Lua into C, we will ask Lua to open and run that file. For more examples, see the end of the tutorial. Now for the C code.
Create a new text file called and save it as "embed.c":
#include <stdlib.h>
#include <stdio.h> /* Include the Lua API header files. */
#include <lua.h>
#include <lauxlib.h>
#include <lualib.h> int main(void)
{
/* Declare the Lua libraries we wish to use. */
/* Note: If you are opening and running a file containing Lua code */
/* using 'lua_dofile(l, "myfile.lua") - you must delcare all the libraries */
/* used in that file here also. */
static const luaL_reg lualibs[] =
{
{ "base", luaopen_base },
{ NULL, NULL }
}; /* A function to open up all the Lua libraries you declared above. */
static void openlualibs(lua_State *l)
{
const luaL_reg *lib; for (lib = lualibs; lib->func != NULL; lib++)
{
lib->func(l);
lua_settop(l, 0);
}
} /* Declare a Lua State, open the Lua State and load the libraries (see above). */
lua_State *l;
l = lua_open();
openlualibs(l); /* You can do what you want here. Note: Remember to update the libraries used (see above) */
/* if you add to your program and use new Lua libraries. */
/* In the lines below, I load and run the Lua code contained in the file */
/* "script.lua". */
/* Plus print some text directly from C. */
printf("This line in directly from C\n\n");
lua_dofile(l, "script.lua");
printf("\nBack to C again\n\n"); /* Remember to destroy the Lua State */
lua_close(l); return 0;
}
To compile this, do the following (Unix):
cc -o embed embed.c \
-I/usr/local/include \
-L/usr/local/lib \
-llua -llualib
To compile under Windows (Visual C++ GUI) do the following:
1: Create a new project.
2: Add the embed.c file.
3: Add the 2 Lua libraries (*.lib) - Standard library and the Core library.
4: Add the locations of the Lua include files to the project options ("Directories tab").
5: You may also have to add the locations of the library files - the same way as above.
6: Compile and Build - that's it.
Now run the compiled file ("./embed" on Unix, "embed.exe" on Windows) and you should see the following output:
This line in directly from C I am using Lua from within C Back to C again
And there it is. Of course this is only an extremely basic example. One thing I actually do myself is embed a scripting language which is good at text processing (Python or Perl) and when I need to do text processing, use the embedded scripting language, instead of C - as it can take a lot more work in C.
You can also send values to and from between C and Lua when embedded, which makes the possibilities endless.
I have seen a good tutorial on this, and will link to it.
#NOTE_TO_MYSELF: Add link.
I might also write my own tutorial on this later on, as well as how to embed other scripting languages into C.
Remember to read the Official Lua API manual for loads more informtaion. Or even read through the Lua source code to see what happens under the hood and how the language is actually made, this will give you an even better understanding.
You don't even have to run the Lua code from a file. You can use the function "lua_dostring(l, 'code') instead of the "lua_dofile" function.
Note on distrobuting programs:
If you embed Lua (Or any other scripting language) into a larger application, you still need to ship with it the scripting languages library files (standard library and core library in Lua's case).
In Lua's case, it is not really a downside if your application is big in the first place, because Lua is so small - the library files should not take up anymore than 1mb. This is why I recommend using Lua, I think it is a great embeddable, extensible, stand-alone scripting language.
I hope you have enjoyed reading this tutorial, and have got lots of exciting ideas!
Remember to thank the team behind Lua for creating a wonderful language.
Embedding Lua in C: Using Lua from inside C.的更多相关文章
- (转) Lua使用心得一 LUA和VC整合
这几天研究了一下lua,主要关注的是lua和vc之间的整合,把代码都写好放在VC宿主程序里,然后在lua里调用宿主程序的这些代码(或者叫接口.组件,随便你怎么叫),希望能用脚本来控制主程序的行为.这实 ...
- cocos2dx lua binding ,cocos2dx 绑定lua测试
前面2篇分别简单介绍 手动bind C++ 类和lua:http://blog.csdn.net/chenee543216/article/details/12074771 使用tolua++简化工作 ...
- 整理Lua和Unity和Lua交互文章链接
重点文章: 1.[Unity3D]Unity3D游戏开发之Lua与游戏的不解之缘(上) 2.[Unity3D]Unity3D游戏开发之Lua与游戏的不解之缘(中) 3.Lua和C++交互详细总结 4. ...
- lua脚本之lua语言简介以及lua的安装
本博主不擅于进行文字创作,所以,相当一部分文字皆复制于其他博文.还希望能够得到谅解. 一.Lua语言简介 Lua是一个免费的开源软件,可以免费用于科研及商业.Lua具有一个专家团队在维护和升级,其设 ...
- Android错误:can not get file data of lua/start_v2.op [LUA ERROR] [string "require "lua/start_v2””] 已解决
错误: can not get file data of lua/start_v2.op [LUA ERROR] [string "require "lua/start_v2””] ...
- 【Lua】linux下lua+mod_lwt环境搭建
Lua 是一个小巧的脚本语言.它具有轻量级.可扩展等优势.它可以作为一个强大.轻量的脚本语言,供任何需要的程序使用. LWT (Lua Web Tools) 可让你使用 Lua 开发 Web 应用,并 ...
- [Lua快速了解一下]Lua运行
-Lua的Hello World print("Hello World") 分号可选 -类似python,进入Lua后再shell中打命令执行语句也可 > print(&qu ...
- lua学习:使用Lua处理游戏数据
在之前lua学习:lua作配置文件里,我们学会了用lua作配置文件. 其实lua在游戏开发中可以作为一个强大的保存.载入游戏数据的工具. 1.载入游戏数据 比如说,现在我有一份表单: data.xls ...
- lua三底漆:lua转让c/c++库(动态链接模式)
dll按功能luaL_openlib出口,然后lua使用package.loadlib导入库函数,基本就是这么个过程,以下上代码来说明一切. #include "stdafx.h" ...
随机推荐
- 最新13个加速 Web 开发的框架和工具
我们为开发人员挑选了15个最新的Web开发框架,你肯定尝试一下这些新鲜的框架,有的可能略微复杂,有的提供了很多的配置选项,也有一些窗口小部件和界面交互的选择.他们将帮助你创建更优秀的网站,提供给用户更 ...
- HTML 5中的文件处理之FileAPI(转载)
原文地址:http://developer.51cto.com/art/201202/319435.htm 在众多HTML5规范中,有一部分规范是跟文件处理有关的,在早期的浏览器技术中,处理小量字符串 ...
- EF调用函数日期查询
q = q.Where(t => System.Data.Entity.SqlServer.SqlFunctions.DateDiff("dd", t.Date, dDate ...
- 《samba服务搭建》RHEL6
Samba服务不仅可以实现linux和win之间的文件共享,也可以实现linux和linux之间的共享,samba的用户只限服务端本地用户使用. 本文的环境是selinux开启的情况下配置 Samba ...
- Ping N个IP测试网络连通性
#-----------------------Smokeping移动节点-------------------##! /bin/bashecho "------------- Statin ...
- flex基础学习
Flex是Adobe开发的一种RIA,富互联网应用,用Flex开发的东西都可以使用Flash做出来,但是Flex主要是面向的程序开发人员,前台使用ActionScript和MXML. 上面介绍了fle ...
- 使用自定义的item、Adapter和AsyncTask、第三方开源框架PullToRefresh联合使用实现自定义的下拉列表(从网络加载图片显示在item中的ImageView)
AsyncTask使用方法详情:http://www.cnblogs.com/zzw1994/p/4959949.html 下拉开源框架PullToRefresh使用方法和下载详情:http://ww ...
- 2.opencv图像处理常用操作
图像的平滑处理 平滑,也称 模糊, 平滑处理时需要用到一个滤波器 .滤波器想象成一个包含加权系数的窗口,这个加权系数也叫做核或者模版. // 图像平滑处理分而学之.cpp : 定义控制台应用程序的入口 ...
- 【转】为什么我说 Android 很糟糕
http://zhuanlan.zhihu.com/wooyun/19879016 Android 的安全问题一直被吐槽,包括不安全的APP市场.上次的远程命令执行漏洞.还有它的权限机制,总之一团糟, ...
- MySQL 死锁日志分析
------------------------ LATEST DETECTED DEADLOCK ------------------------ 140824 1:01:24 *** (1) T ...