[gentoo-user] Re: Which Lua should I choose?

[Ionen Wolkens]

On Tue, Jan 19, 2021 at 02:51:49PM +0100, Gerion Entrup wrote:
> Hi,
>
> with the recent Lua changes in Gentoo, I now must somehow choose, which Lua version I should prefer.
> I have heard that every Lua version is mostly different (incompatible) from each other and in addition to that there is Luajit which is much faster an also supported.
> However, all (slotted) Lua versions in the current tree are keyworded.
>
> Portage on its own seems to choose Lua 5.1.
> Is there a recommendation which Lua version is a wise choice?
>
> For Python it is usually a good choice to set nothing and you get a high compatibility (3.7 is the default currently, I think). If you choose newer Python versions, you get more features but also more work with regard to setting some useflags for packages that don't support the new version yet. Is there something comparable with Lua?

The point of slotted lua is to be able to have many at once. There's
packages that only support 5-1, and others only 5-3 (like darktable),
so pick 1 or many based on what you need/use.

lua5-1 still has the most compatibility so it makes sense as default for
now.

lua5-4 is on the opposite end with too little support.

Not fond of luajit, it feels kind of like a old hack to me while normal
lua been moving forward.

Personally use lua5-3 where possible, and fall back on the next lower
version if needed.

-- 
ionen