[eLua]: News

28 February 2009

Unfortunately, re-writing the docs takes more time than originally estimated, so we're forced to postpone this new release. We'd rather do this and come up with a package with very good docs rather than compromising and releasing only a half-baked package. Keep on watching the news page for more information, we'll update it as soon as the new release is ready.

02 February 2009

We know that we haven't had an official release in a while now, but there's a lot of stuff going on with the project. The next release will definitely happen before the enf of February and it will come with a lot of interesting new features, including support for two new platforms, a completely redesigned documentation system, and a few surprises that I won't mention just yet :) So stay tuned, we're working hard to make eLua better for you.

01 November 2008

Version 0.5 is released! Among other goodies, it brings TCP/IP support to eLua. Here's the changelog:

Added support for STR7 CPUs from ST
Added TCP/IP support using the uIP stack
Added support for console and shell over TCP/IP besides the previous serial link
Added the "net" module (eLua's interface to TCP/IP functions)
Added the "cpu" module (eLua's interface to the target CPU)
New samples: morse.lua (Morse code encoder), lhttpd.lua (Lua scripting HTTP server)
Added support for cross-compiling Lua code (compile on PC, run on target)
XMODEM can now receive Lua bytecode in addition to Lua source code
The XMODEM buffer is now dynamic (grows as needed) instead of fixed size
Project documentation updated

Also, there's a new tutorial about how to use eLua with STR7 CPUs. The rest of the project page was updated to reflect the current project status, most notably the FAQ, examples and status pages).

IMPORTANT NOTE: you'll need to update your binutils to version 2.19 to use this release with Cortex CPUs. The Cortex GCC tutorial was updated with this information.

Enjoy this new release. The next one will be focused on reducing the memory footprint (both Flash and RAM) of eLua, and (hopefully) will also come with a nice surprise :)

16 October 2008

The OpenOCD tutorial was updated with a new section about how to use OpenOCD with a STR7 CPU from ST. Also, the about page was updated with more information about the authors of eLua. Expect a new eLua version towards the end of October.

10 September 2008

Version 0.4.1 is released! This is a minor release, its main purpose is to "keep in sync" with Lua, thus eLua now has the latest official Lua version (5.1.4). You probably don't need to upgrade to this version (since 5.1.4 only fixes some minor/exotic bugs in 5.1.3) so I'm only providing the source code, without any binaries. Here's the changelog:

Changed the file system structure; now you can build both Lua versions (floating point and int only) from the same directory
Made the math library configurable using the existent 'platform libraries' mechanism
The "os" and "package" modules are no longer loaded by Lua, since they can't be used anyway. Because of this, the code size of eLua was reduced.
Project documentation updated

02 September 2008

Version 0.4 is released! Here's the changelog:

Added support for LPC2888 (preliminary)
Added PWM module
New samples: TV-B-Gone (power off your TV), piano (play piano from your PC keyboard), pwmled (fade led on/off), all based on the new PWM module
Added support for multiple memory spaces (this can be used to take advantage of both the internal CPU RAM and external RAM chips on boards that have external RAM)
Autorun: if "autorun.lua" is found in the filesystem, it is executed before starting the shell
Added "pack" (binary data packing/unpacking) and "bit" (binary operations) modules
Build system updated, easier to use, now it knows how to handle "boards" as well as CPUs
Modified the existing platform modules to take less RAM and to report an error when an unavailable resource is requested
Project documentation updated

02 September 2008

The eLua site was updated in anticipation of the new 0.4 release, which will come soon (very soon, in fact). Now there's a FAQ page. Also, the status and roadmap, building eLua, example programs and using OpenOCD pages were updated. And there's yet another new page on how to use eLua with LPC2888 CPUs. Expect the 0.4 release later today.

09 August 2008

OK, this took less time than I expected :) The page on how to use eLua with STR9 CPUs is available here.

09 August 2008

Version 0.3 is released! The project page was updated, with more sections to come soon, including a tutorial on how to use eLua with STR9 CPUs. Here's the changelog for the 0.3 version:

Now you can play hangman directly from eLua :), thanks to the new "term" module that handles ANSI escape sequences
Added support for ST STR912FW44
Added support for Cortex LM3S6965
More intuitive and flexible build system (new syntax, component selection at build time)
eLua examples are now part of the repository
Project documentation updated

06 August 2008

The web page was updated with an OpenOCD tutorial that will continue to grow as more and more targets are added. This update is also an informal announcement of the soon to come eLua 0.3 release, which (among other things) brings support for the STR9-comStick.

29 July 2008

eLua has a new home at BerliOS. Besides the new menu system on the home page, the biggest news is that the code repository is now based on SVN (as opposed to CVS until now). If you're a developer, this is probably good news for you. If not, check the download page to learn about the new eLua download locations.

28 July 2008

I got a report that compiling a simple C++ program for a Cortex CPU with a compiler built after my instructions failed with a linker error. I checked and I found out that the gcc's C++ library (libstdc++) wasn't even build properly for Cortex-M3. My bad. I updated the tutorial page. The only modification is in step 4, where you need to give more flags to the "make" commands, not just the CFLAGS. Thanks for reporting this.

27 July 2008

Version 0.2 is released! Also, as you probably figured out by now, the project page was seriously updated. Here's the changelog for the 0.2 version:

Added support for Cortex LM3S8962
New platform modules (UART, SPI, Timer, platform data)
First release of the eLua shell
Lua source files can now be sent to target with XMODEM
You can download binary file images from the "files" section, so you don't need to compile eLua yourself

25 July 2008

Project page updated to reflect the current eLua status and roadmap. Now there is a separate status and roadmap page. Also, version 0.2 is about to be released soon, with many new features, improvements and support for a new platform. More documentation is on the way, too.

15 July 2008

Added a tutorial on how to make your own eLua USB bootable stick! Get it while it's hot! :)

11 July 2008

eLua version 0.1 is finally out! Be sure to check the download page, and also the project page. The build instructions are included in the eLua archive. Also, new tutorials (building cross compilers for ARM and i386) were added, and the boot into Lua page was updated to reflect the fact that you can build the eLua ELF file yourself now!

07 July 2008

I'm still "brushing" the source code and adding more documentation before commiting the first version to CVS. Meanwhile, I prepared a (hopefully) nice surprise for all of you who showed interest in eLua (and for those of you who didn't, hopefully this will make you curious :) ). So, if you ever wanted to boot your PC directly in Lua, take a look here. That's right: no OS, just GRUB loading a multiboot compliant ELF file! The ELF file is build from the exact source tree I'm using to build eLua for embedded devices, I only needed to change the platform layer (more about this after uploading the sources and adding some documentation). I hope you'll enjoy this at least as much as I do. While this is only a proof of concept, I am not going to abandon the "standalone Lua on PC" idea, because it could have some very interesting applications (think "BIOS scripting with Lua", Open Firmware with Lua instead of Forth, educational applications and many others.)

05 July 2008

The web page is up! For now you can only read the project description. Also, a tutorial about how to compile a GCC toolchain for the Cortex architecture is available here.