Programming in Lua for the Mac?

Question

I was wondering, what can i use to program in Lua on the Mac? I'm looking for something that i can use to compile/interpret lua script on the mac.

Answer 1

The Lua source easily compiles with no changes on the mac. It will build lua (the interpreter which can act on a source script, a pre-compiled script or interactively) and luac which can be used to pre-compile source scripts.

From the lua.org website: http://luabinaries.luaforge.net/download.html. The ones you want are the darwin binaries (they say Mac OS X in the description).

Answer 2

My favorite way (from the shell):

sudo port install lua

I LOVE macports!

Answer 3

Here is my terminal session from compiling and installing Lua from source, basically following these directions. I already had Apple's Developer Tools installed, and /usr/local/bin was already in my PATH, so I was able to skip some of the more time-consuming and/or tedious steps in the directions.

$ cd ~/Downloads

$ tar -xf lua-5.1.4.tar

$ cd lua-5.1.4

$ make macosx    
cd src && make macosx
make all MYCFLAGS=-DLUA_USE_LINUX MYLIBS="-lreadline"
gcc -O2 -Wall -DLUA_USE_LINUX   -c -o lapi.o lapi.c
gcc -O2 -Wall -DLUA_USE_LINUX   -c -o lcode.o lcode.c
gcc -O2 -Wall -DLUA_USE_LINUX   -c -o ldebug.o ldebug.c
gcc -O2 -Wall -DLUA_USE_LINUX   -c -o ldo.o ldo.c
gcc -O2 -Wall -DLUA_USE_LINUX   -c -o ldump.o ldump.c
gcc -O2 -Wall -DLUA_USE_LINUX   -c -o lfunc.o lfunc.c
gcc -O2 -Wall -DLUA_USE_LINUX   -c -o lgc.o lgc.c
gcc -O2 -Wall -DLUA_USE_LINUX   -c -o llex.o llex.c
gcc -O2 -Wall -DLUA_USE_LINUX   -c -o lmem.o lmem.c
gcc -O2 -Wall -DLUA_USE_LINUX   -c -o lobject.o lobject.c
gcc -O2 -Wall -DLUA_USE_LINUX   -c -o lopcodes.o lopcodes.c
gcc -O2 -Wall -DLUA_USE_LINUX   -c -o lparser.o lparser.c
gcc -O2 -Wall -DLUA_USE_LINUX   -c -o lstate.o lstate.c
gcc -O2 -Wall -DLUA_USE_LINUX   -c -o lstring.o lstring.c
gcc -O2 -Wall -DLUA_USE_LINUX   -c -o ltable.o ltable.c
gcc -O2 -Wall -DLUA_USE_LINUX   -c -o ltm.o ltm.c
gcc -O2 -Wall -DLUA_USE_LINUX   -c -o lundump.o lundump.c
gcc -O2 -Wall -DLUA_USE_LINUX   -c -o lvm.o lvm.c
gcc -O2 -Wall -DLUA_USE_LINUX   -c -o lzio.o lzio.c
gcc -O2 -Wall -DLUA_USE_LINUX   -c -o lauxlib.o lauxlib.c
gcc -O2 -Wall -DLUA_USE_LINUX   -c -o lbaselib.o lbaselib.c
gcc -O2 -Wall -DLUA_USE_LINUX   -c -o ldblib.o ldblib.c
gcc -O2 -Wall -DLUA_USE_LINUX   -c -o liolib.o liolib.c
gcc -O2 -Wall -DLUA_USE_LINUX   -c -o lmathlib.o lmathlib.c
gcc -O2 -Wall -DLUA_USE_LINUX   -c -o loslib.o loslib.c
gcc -O2 -Wall -DLUA_USE_LINUX   -c -o ltablib.o ltablib.c
gcc -O2 -Wall -DLUA_USE_LINUX   -c -o lstrlib.o lstrlib.c
gcc -O2 -Wall -DLUA_USE_LINUX   -c -o loadlib.o loadlib.c
gcc -O2 -Wall -DLUA_USE_LINUX   -c -o linit.o linit.c
ar rcu liblua.a lapi.o lcode.o ldebug.o ldo.o ldump.o lfunc.o lgc.o llex.o lmem.o lobject.o lopcodes.o lparser.o lstate.o lstring.o ltable.o ltm.o lundump.o lvm.o lzio.o lauxlib.o lbaselib.o ldblib.o liolib.o lmathlib.o loslib.o ltablib.o lstrlib.o loadlib.o linit.o
ranlib liblua.a
gcc -O2 -Wall -DLUA_USE_LINUX   -c -o lua.o lua.c
gcc -o lua  lua.o liblua.a -lm -lreadline
gcc -O2 -Wall -DLUA_USE_LINUX   -c -o luac.o luac.c
gcc -O2 -Wall -DLUA_USE_LINUX   -c -o print.o print.c
gcc -o luac  luac.o print.o liblua.a -lm -lreadline

$ make test
src/lua test/hello.lua
Hello world, from Lua 5.1!

$ sudo make install INSTALL_TOP=/usr/local
Password:
cd src && mkdir -p /usr/local/bin /usr/local/include /usr/local/lib /usr/local/man/man1 /usr/local/share/lua/5.1 /usr/local/lib/lua/5.1
cd src && install -p -m 0755 lua luac /usr/local/bin
cd src && install -p -m 0644 lua.h luaconf.h lualib.h lauxlib.h ../etc/lua.hpp /usr/local/include
cd src && install -p -m 0644 liblua.a /usr/local/lib
cd doc && install -p -m 0644 lua.1 luac.1 /usr/local/man/man1

$ lua
Lua 5.1.4  Copyright (C) 1994-2008 Lua.org, PUC-Rio
> print "Hi"
Hi
> = 2 + 3
5
> ^c

$ cd test

$ lua factorial.lua 
0! = 1
1! = 1
2! = 2
3! = 6
4! = 24
5! = 120
6! = 720
7! = 5040
8! = 40320
9! = 362880
10! = 3628800
11! = 39916800
12! = 479001600
13! = 6227020800
14! = 87178291200
15! = 1307674368000
16! = 20922789888000