Convenient way of generating Lua files for every tl file?

[pdesaulniers]

Right now, it seems like I need to manually call tl gen <filename> for every tl file in my project.

While I can write a script to automate this, I suppose it would be nice if there was a built-in way of generating Lua files for multiple tl modules at once.

For instance, in TypeScript, we can specify the input files inside tsconfig.json and run tsc to compile the whole project.

[hishamhm]

I guess we can call this one fixed by #42, since you can run tl gen *.tl now!

[pdesaulniers]

Yes, that works. However, I would prefer if there was some way to specify the input files inside tlconfig.lua. That way, users would not have to rely on a shell-specific script or command to build the project.

For instance, the syntax for globs is shell dependent, especially when we get to patterns like **/*.tl. My build.sh script would not work in cmd.exe :(

I'd be happy if tlconfig supported something akin to the "include" and "exclude" properties in tsconfig.json. This would allow using globs for input files in a platform independent manner.

For the time being, though, I suppose a simple files array would be good enough.

[hishamhm]

For the time being, though, I suppose a simple files array would be good enough.

Yeah, that should be an easy add. Anything involving globs would take some extra dependency to do the directory traversal.

[pdesaulniers]

It seems like lua-path supports globs:

local path = require("path")

local src = "./game/*.lua"

path.each(src, "f", function(full_path)
	print(full_path)
end, {
	recurse = true; -- include subdirs
})

This library could also be used for building paths in #47.

Otherwise, there is also lpath:

local fs = require("path.fs")

-- find all .lua files in directory "game"
local src = "game/*/*.lua"

local files = fs.glob(src)

for _, v in ipairs(files) do
	-- do something
end

Are you aware of a better library for this?

[hishamhm]

Are you aware of a better library for this?

Not really! At first glance it doesn't look like either of them supports the zsh/typescript ** notation for recursive descent, but I don't know if that's a must-have either (maybe some toggle in the libraries make them expand all subdirs in globs? or maybe contacting the module authors about it would be a good idea?).

In any case, I have no immediate preference, it's up to you to pick the library if you're interested in adding the feature!

[euclidianAce]

@hishamhm So I'm working on a pr for this and was wondering if we should change the --include option to mimic tsconfigs. My thought process is that if you want to include extra paths, you should do that in the shell with LUA_PATH and LUA_CPATH. Otherwise I'd probably call it --input or something. Any thoughts?

[pdesaulniers]

@euclidianAce I added the --include flag for text editor support. If this variable is set inside tlconfig.lua, then the language server inside the editor can use the proper module search path automatically. For this use case, I'm not sure if people want to mess around with LUA_PATH and LUA_CPATH manually (especially not in GUI editors)

With that said, maybe it would be better to rename the current --include flag to something else, so that --include and --exclude may be used for this feature.

[hishamhm]

I kinda like the fact that -I (uppercase i) and -l (lowercase l) have vaguely similar meanings as they do for gcc. Don't mind if the long form --include becomes --include-dir or something.

[pdesaulniers]

Fixed by #177.