[vlc-devel] [RFC] http vs luahttp

[Rémi Denis-Courmont]

Le dimanche 27 mars 2011 15:06:24 Jean-Baptiste Kempf, vous avez écrit :
> What is the pros and cons of luahttp over http? Do we keep both?
> What are the outstanding bugs in luahttp?
> Do we deprecate one?

(=) I am not satisfied with the current HTTPd core, but both the LUA and 
RPN[1] interfaces use it, so it's irrelevant.

(=) Also either way, to reach a new VLC feature, new C code needs to be 
written. And then, when the plugin API changes, both LUA and RPN languages may 
need fixing.

(+) As far as PHP-style scripting goes, LUA is much more accessible than 
Laurent's RPN. As such it's far more appealing for new developers.

(+) The LUA run-time is much easier for us to maintain, as it's an external 
library.

(+) LUA needs much less HTTP-specific C code, since most of the LUA plugin 
code is common with other LUA plugin capabilities.

(-) I am not aware of Rob's claimed stability issues. There may be some race 
conditions in the LUA/HTTPd glue. Indeed HTTPd runs in a different thread than 
the LUA interface. If I recall correctly, getting event handling and 
synchronization (mostly?) right in the RPN interface occupied me quite a 
while. I have absolutely no intentions of going through this painful process 
on my free time again. Then again, it might just be a problem with LUA on 
MacOS?

(-) If there's a limitation in LUA, we cannot fix it unless we fork LUA.


[1] http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Reverse_Polish_Notation

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Rémi Denis-Courmont
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