[tlbuild] Lua extension modules on Windows

[Taco Hoekwater]

On 04/27/2011 12:18 AM, Philipp Stephani wrote:
> Hello,
>
> I'm deeply sorry, but the neverending story continues ... this time on Windows. There the Lua interpreter is contained in the library LUATEX.DLL, but that library doesn't export the Lua runtime functions that are needed for linking against the library. The TeX Live 2010 version exports only the function "dllluatexmain", and the TLcontrib version additionally exports several PNG-related function. But to use extension modules on Windows, all Lua functions should be exported as well. Would that be possible? Even better, could TeX Live provide a stock LUA51.DLL so that extension modules could link against that library instead?

On windows, you can use the system lua51.dll without too much problems. 
That also means you can use precompiled lua extensions, which is a good
thing since most windows users do not know how to compile anything.

Separating out the lua library from luatex proper is planned for next 
year. It requires a bunch of low-level and build system changes that we 
cannot do on short notice.

Best wishes,
Taco