Book Image

Integrate Lua with C++

By : Wenhuan Li
Book Image

Integrate Lua with C++

By: Wenhuan Li

Overview of this book

C++ is a popular choice in the developer community for building complex and large-scale performant applications and systems. Often a need arises to extend the system at runtime, without recompiling the whole C++ program. Using a scripting language like Lua can help achieve this goal efficiently. Integrate Lua to C++ is a comprehensive guide to integrating Lua to C++ and will enable you to achieve the goal of extending C++ programs at runtime. You’ll learn, in sequence, how to get and compile the Lua library, the Lua programming language, calling Lua code from C++, and calling C++ code from Lua. In each topic, you’ll practice with code examples, and learn the in-depth mechanisms for smooth working. Throughout the book, the latter examples build on the earlier ones while also acting as a standalone. You’ll learn to implement Lua executor and Lua binding generator, which you can use in your projects directly with further customizations. By the end of this book, you’ll have mastered integrating Lua into C++ and using Lua in your C++ project efficiently, gained the skills to extend your applications at runtime, and achieved dynamic and adaptable C++ development.

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Table of Contents (18 chapters)
Preface
Preface
Who this book is for
What this book covers
To get the most out of this book
Download the example code files
Conventions used
Get in touch
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Free Chapter
1
Part 1 – Lua Basics
Part 1 – Lua Basics
2
Chapter 1: Getting Your C++ Project Lua-Ready
Chapter 1: Getting Your C++ Project Lua-Ready
Technical requirements
Compiling the Lua source code
Building a C++ project with the Lua library
Building a C++ project with the Lua source code
Executing a simple Lua script
Other toolchain options
Summary
3
Chapter 2: Lua Fundamentals
Chapter 2: Lua Fundamentals
Technical requirements
Variables and types
Control structures
Summary
Exercises
References
4
Part 2 – Calling Lua from C++
Part 2 – Calling Lua from C++
5
Chapter 3: How to Call Lua from C++
Chapter 3: How to Call Lua from C++
Technical requirements
Implementing a Lua executor
Executing a Lua file
Executing a Lua script
Understanding the Lua stack
Operating on global variables
Calling Lua functions
Summary
Exercises
6
Chapter 4: Mapping Lua Types to C++
Chapter 4: Mapping Lua Types to C++
Technical requirements
Mapping Lua types
Supporting different argument types
Supporting a variable number of arguments
Supporting multiple return values
Summary
Exercises
7
Chapter 5: Working with Lua Tables
Chapter 5: Working with Lua Tables
Technical requirements
Working with Lua table entries
Working with Lua arrays
OOP in Lua
Working with Lua table functions
Summary
Exercises
8
Part 3 – Calling C++ from Lua
Part 3 – Calling C++ from Lua
9
Chapter 6: How to Call C++ from Lua
Chapter 6: How to Call C++ from Lua
Technical requirements
How to register C++ functions
How to override Lua library functions
How to register C++ modules
Summary
Exercises
10
Chapter 7: Working with C++ Types
Chapter 7: Working with C++ Types
Technical requirements
How to use the Lua registry
How to use userdata
Exporting C++ types to Lua
Summary
Exercise
11
Chapter 8: Abstracting a C++ Type Exporter
Chapter 8: Abstracting a C++ Type Exporter
Technical requirements
Reviewing the factory implementation
Designing a type exporter
Stubbing the exporter
Defining LuaModuleDef
Re-implementing luaNew
Are you flexible enough?
Summary
Exercise
12
Part 4 – Advanced Topics
Part 4 – Advanced Topics
13
Chapter 9: Recapping Lua-C++ Communication Mechanisms
Chapter 9: Recapping Lua-C++ Communication Mechanisms
Technical requirements
The stack
Calling Lua from C++
Calling C++ from Lua
Implementing standalone C++ modules
Storing state in Lua
Userdata
Summary
14
Chapter 10: Managing Resources
Chapter 10: Managing Resources
Technical requirements
Customizing Lua memory allocation
Delegating C++ object memory allocation to Lua
What is RAII?
Summary
15
Chapter 11: Multithreading with Lua
Chapter 11: Multithreading with Lua
Technical requirements
Multithreading in C++
Multithreading in Lua
Using coroutine with C++
Summary
16
Index
Index
Why subscribe?
17
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To get the most out of this book

This book will build a Lua executor. Each chapter will focus on one area and add one feature group to the executor. The exercises at the end of the chapter, if provided, are a crucial part to prepare for the next chapter. For the more experienced readers among you, this is why some code might not get implemented optimally in the initial chapters. This will help you stay focused on the topics at hand.

This book assumes that you know C++ and are willing to learn about Lua. If you have no intention of being a Lua programmer, you only need to focus on the related Lua concepts rather than Lua coding.

Because this is not a dedicated book to teach either of the programming languages, when you see the usage of a certain API that you are not familiar with, you can get more information from a Lua or a C++ reference manual. You can enrich your learning journey by frequently bridging your knowledge gaps through online research.

Depending on your style of learning, you can either type all the examples yourself to be more hands-on or download the source code from GitHub, quickly skipping through the chapters and reverting to a specific chapter as needed when you start to implement your own project.

If you are using the digital version of this book, we advise you to type the code yourself or access the code from the book’s GitHub repository (a link is available in the next section). Doing so will help you avoid any potential errors related to the copying and pasting of code.

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