So I downloaded it, how do I compile it?

[pupp]

Only interested in https://luapower.com/winapi , how can I see it in action? Got msys2 with mingw.

There are those strange "Load Errors" here https://luapower.com/winapi/info , I hope they wouldn't affect anything.

Also I want to know if with luapower I can use some sort of console to build gui step by step.

[pupp]

There are a lot of packages listed in dependencies, but if you look more carefully, looks like you really need only two packages for the majority of them: luajit and glue. The opengl and cairo are for 3d acceleration and for crossplatform vector+text rendering, can live without those for now.

[pupp]

Wow, there sure is a lot of people here.

Compile instructions are here https://luapower.com/building . You only need to compile luajit, because glue is just a single .lua file.

Once you compile it, you will have an extra luajit.exe lua51.dll luajit.a files in your luapower-all-master/bin/mingw64 folder, and a luajit.cmd in luapower-all-master. This luajit.cmd is just for convenience, it will run the correct program for you.

There's also some docs in luapower-all-master/csrc/luajit/src/doc/

If you are typing lua code interactively, don't use "local". Only works in files.

I wonder if it's possible to launch winapi.MessageLoop() asynchronously, without locking console.

[pupp]

Dear diary, I made a tiny bit of progress.

I run into an issue with buttons not working. Read it here https://github.com/luapower/winapi/issues/33 . Solution is also in there. In short, one message wasn't working because it required my executable to have some manifest, and my selfbuilt luajit didn't had one. It doesn't seem that important and is actually trivial to fix.

[cosmin]

Hi pupp!

Luapower author here. Looks like you encountered a few issues with luapower since you started. Can you make a list of things that you found surprising or frustrating or took a while to grasp? I'd like to improve the documentation if I can, maybe make a getting-started guide. Thanks!

[pupp]

Well, documentation is really good actually. I created this thread because this whole thing looked a bit deserted. You never know what you will run into.

List of things that could be improved a bit:

1. Download link for the actual luajit, so I don't have to compile it. There's just too many things that can go wrong when you compile something yourself.
2. Tutorial with a lot of pictures and sample code. Maybe even with gifs. And FAQ in form of questions+answers. Keep text to minimum.
3. Probably remove cairo and directsound dependency, they are not that necessary in everyday life.

I can even help with some of it really cheap, I don't have a job anyway.

[cosmin]

Hi. Thanks for the feedback. I think the site layout needs improving. For instance, there is a FAQ link at the top. Did you missed it? Also, luajit comes with precompiled binaries and build scripts (all packages do). You can download the package from the download link on luapower.com/luajit or from github.

[pupp]

Hm, why I was so sure that I had to compile it? I guess it was in luapower-all-master/bin/mingw64/ the whole time. I guess I don't know to look in the /bin folder first.

Please extend "How do I get started?" just a bit more, it only describes how to download it. Tell what folder is for what, like what is "lpeg" and "media" for? Maybe another "_WHAT.txt" at the top level. On windows files don't get sorted in the same way as on linux, capslock doesn't get on top. Files starting with _underscore do though.

[cosmin]

Ok, I'll make a short guide on the directory layout. Thanks for the tip. Until then, if you want the extended version of that guide check out https://luapower.com/get-involved