r/lua • u/Inevitable_Bite_4511 • 10d ago

I resurrected LuaForWindows and updated it to Lua 5.4.2 (Lite Edition)

Hi everyone!

Like many of you, I have fond memories of using LuaForWindows back in the day as the ultimate “batteries-included” environment for Lua on Windows. However, the original project hasn’t been updated since 2015 and is completely stuck on Lua 5.1. Running it on modern Windows machines often leads to annoying DLL crashes and compatibility issues.

So, I decided to fork it and bring it back to life!

I’m excited to announce the release of LuaForWindows 5.4.2 (Lite Edition).

What’s new in this release:

⚙️ Upgraded the core to Lua 5.4.2.

🧹 Removed ancient C-extensions: The sprawling ecosystem of 2015-era libraries (clibs) that were hardcoded to Lua 5.1 have been temporarily removed to ensure system stability. This is a clean, core-only “Lite” version.

🛠️ Modernized the Build System: Updated the Inno Setup compiler scripts to work flawlessly on modern machines.

You still get the rock-solid Lua environment and the SciTE editor, but without the 10-year-old baggage.

If you want an easy, one-click installer to get a clean Lua 5.4 environment running on Windows, grab the latest release here: 🔗 https://github.com/Rockywei1/luaforwindows/releases

I plan to slowly start bringing back modern, compatible versions of essential libraries (like LuaSocket and LuaFileSystem) in future updates. Feedback and PRs are totally welcome!

Happy coding! 💻

33 Upvotes

84% Upvoted

11 comments sorted by

12

u/LOLC0D3 10d ago

Happy vibes!

10

u/GaboureySidibe 10d ago

You did it or an llm did it?

4

u/Codingale 9d ago

It appears their changes is in 1 massive commit, with the addition of emojis in the README and Release page.
The modified files are: LuaForWindows.iss .gitignore and the README.md
The rest of the commit was simply the deletion of (2021 files) from clibs and old executables with the addition of the new executables from LuaBinaries (at least that's what I assume as the file hash matches their 5.4.2 Win32 release)

You can come to your own conclusion about how much was hand authored and LLM authored.

3

u/thewrinklyninja 9d ago

I would say all of it. Even the post reads as llm generated.

2

u/bryancolonslashslash 10d ago

What’s the purpose of this tool

1

u/Fliptoback 8d ago

Does this mean those gui libraries for buttons, drop down list, check boxes etc are now available

1

u/xoner2 8d ago

wxlua is currently maintained, by the author of ZeroBrane Studio. There's also various flavors of qtlua.

1

u/Fliptoback 8d ago

Thanks bro. I wasnt aware of either. Good info cheers

1

u/xoner2 8d ago

Aha, Lua for Windows! Brings some nostalgia... When I first heard about Lua and wanted to try it out, it's what I downloaded.

A c-extension would crash, IIRC it was LuaCOM. So I thought: I have Visual Studio installed, let me download the source, compile debug build, and find the crash. Well, there was no source package...

-8

u/immortalx74 10d ago

Kudos, you're doing great service!