evo-runtime

evo is an experimental Lua runtime built on LuaJIT and libuv, with batteries included.

Status

Functional, but not feature complete. See issues and milestones for future plans.

Features

Here's a selection of things you can do when running Lua scripts with Evo:

• Networking via UDP, TCP, HTTP/S, and WebSockets
• File system access, process I/O, and other system-level tasks
• Make use of the builtin test runner (including assertions library)
• Create native or web-based UIs and 3D software
• Data compression, encryption, and basic image processing

Not all of the included APIs are as user-friendly as I'd like, but that'll change.

System Requirements

The supported platforms are current versions of Windows, Linux, and macOS.

Automated testing covers all platforms equally:

Development happens on Windows 10 and Ubuntu; macOS (especially M1) support is given on a "best effort" basis.

Compatibility

Evo is fully compatible with:

• PUC Lua 5.1
• LuaJIT (latest)

It is generally incompatible with:

• PUC Lua 5.2, 5.3, or 5.4 (though some 5.2 and 5.3 APIs are supported)
• Any LuaJIT fork that strays too far from upstream (it's dangerous out there!)
• Embedded Lua(u) environments, like those found in games (ROBLOX, WOW, ...)

I have no plans to support Lua engines other than LuaJIT at this time.

Repository Layout

In this repository, you'll find the following important directories:

• BuildTools/: Basic tooling to generate Ninja build configurations for the runtime
• deps/: Third-party libraries and MSYS/Unix-compatible build scripts
• Runtime/: Native glue and bootstrapping code for the Lua environment
• Tests/: All kinds of automated tests and executable specs live here

After building, you'll additionally find a temporary directory containing all build artifacts here:

• ninjabuild-windows (Windows)
• ninjabuild-unix (Linux or macOS)

There's also config files for GitHub actions and other tooling in the project root - a necessary evil.

More Documentation

The documentation website (work in progress) can be found here:

• https://evo-lua.github.io/

If something's outdated, wrong, or missing, please open an issue!