Re: [Lua snippit] print_hex

["Patrick Donnelly" <batrick.donnelly () gmail com>]

On Sun, Sep 7, 2008 at 9:51 PM, Ron <ron () skullsecurity net> wrote:
> I agree that a best practices or style guide of some kind would be
> handy. While writing a script, there were a few times when I wasn't sure
> what the proper style was. Here are some thoughts I had while I was writing:
> - Tab indenting or spaces? If spaces, how many?
> - Should there be a maximum line length?

These two are very open to personal style. I use only spaces (2 for
each indent) and restrict myself to 80 characters per line (so they
fit in a standard terminal window).

> - Is it better to use, for example, str:len() or string.length(str)?

Each data type in Lua can have a metatable (some can have individual
metatables like tables and full userdata). The string metatable
indexes the global string library. This usually involves 2 table
indexes (one for __index and one for "len"). The second (which should
be string.len) is also two table indexes (one for string global,
second for indexing "len"). I usually use the first because it is
shorter and is two table indexes regardless of where you call it from
(for instance, you could be in a module where it would be three
indexes). If you have the string library (or the len function) local,
then string.len will always be faster than the metatable access.

> Thankfully, Lua doesn't have braces so I don't have to be upset at
> people who put their braces in the clearly wrong place (you know where
> they ought to be)! :)

Table constructors have braces :P

Cheers,

-- 
-Patrick Donnelly

"One of the lessons of history is that nothing is often a good thing
to do and always a clever thing to say."

-Will Durant

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