diff --git a/doc/en/overview.html b/doc/en/overview.html index 4998eec6..bdefd609 100644 --- a/doc/en/overview.html +++ b/doc/en/overview.html @@ -9,30 +9,40 @@

eLua stands for Embedded Lua and the project aims to offer the full set of features of the Lua Programming Language to the embedded world.

eLua -is not a stripped down set fo Lua; much on the contrary, it strives to offer the same features as the desktop version of Lua, but introducing specific features for embedded use. +is not a stripped down set of Lua; much on the contrary, it strives to +offer the same features as the desktop version of Lua, but introducing +specific features for embedded use. Besides offering different flavors of the full Lua implementation -(like the possiblity of choosing between an integer-only and a floating point implementation), -a lot of work was (and will be) done in the direction of making Lua more "embedded-friendly" by augmenting the core language with features that allow lower memory requirements.

+(like the possiblity of choosing between an integer-only and a floating +point numbers implementation), +a lot of work was (and will be) done in the direction of making Lua +more "embedded-friendly" by augmenting the core language with features +that allow lower memory requirements.

Lua is the perfect example of a minimal, yet fully functional language. Although generally advertised as a "scripting language" (and used accordingly especially in the game industry), it is also fully capable of running stand-alone programs. Its limited resource requirements make it suitable to a lot of microcontroller -families. The intrinsic high portability of the original Lua code (which is ANSI C and runs virtually on every platform for which an ANSI C compiler is available) combined with the highly portable software architecture of eLua allow for easy porting of the project to a large variety or architectures. The peripheral access libraries exported by eLua are also portable by design, so one could run a Lua program (without or with very few modifications) on every eLua supported platform (the project roadmap shows a constantly growing list of platforms on which eLua is supported). eLua inherits the minimalistic and functional design of Lua, staying in line with the well known KISS (Keep It Small and Simple) philosophy.

+families. The intrinsic high portability of the original Lua code +(which is ANSI C and runs virtually on every platform for which an ANSI +C compiler is available) combined with the highly portable software +architecture of eLua allow for easy porting of the project to a large variety or architectures. The peripheral access libraries exported by eLua are also portable by design, so one could run a Lua program (without or with very few modifications) on every eLua supported platform (the project status & roadmap shows a constantly growing list of platforms on which eLua is supported). eLua inherits the minimalistic and functional design of Lua, staying in line with the well known KISS (Keep It Small and Simple) philosophy.

The aim of the project is to have a fully functional Lua development environment on the microcontroller itself, -without the need to install a specific development environment on the PC side. This includes the ability to both edit and debug programs directly on target. +without the need to install a specific development environment on +the PC side. This includes the ability to both edit and debug programs +directly on target. Initially, a PC will still be needed in order to edit the Lua programs for the microcontroller. But as the project evolves this requirement will be relaxed, as a basic editor (also residing on the microcontroller) will be usable with a variety of input/output devices.

-

We can't end this short presentation without presenting our project motto: no matter what you do with eLua, always remember to have fun with it :)

+

We can't end this short presentation without presenting our project motto: No matter what you do with eLua, always remember to have fun with it :)

Features

As already stated, eLua allows you to run Lua completely on the target microcontroller. A fast-growing set of complementary modules is also -provided, for Lua programming eLua's generic (portable) peripherals.

+provided, for Lua programming eLua's generic (portable) peripherals.

The following important features are ready or being implemented:

-

For more information about the functionality (implemented and planned) in eLua check the status page.

-

Porting eLua to another compatible platform should be as easy + +

For more information about the functionality (implemented and planned) in eLua check the status page.

+

Porting eLua to another compatible platform should be as easy and painless as possible. Currently this is restricted to platforms for which the gcc+newlib combo is available. This restriction will disappeaer in the near future, as eLua will have its own libc and thus it will be available on a much @@ -71,8 +81,13 @@ that want to extend their programs with the Lua library facilities and portable features.

eLua allows embedded-oriented programmers to use the simplicity and power of the Lua programming language and to hide the low-level -complexities and platform/architecture-dependent features. With eLua, the programmer can focus on the actual implementation of his program, without having to worry about accessing the low-level peripheral configuration and data registers, as the platform libraries already take care of this. This increases productivity and eliminates the often frustrating task of dealing with platform-specific drivers.

-

The list below summarizes eLua's target audience:

Authors

eLua is a joint project of Bogdan Marinescu, a software developer from Bucharest (Romania) and Dado Sutter, @@ -105,17 +120,9 @@ Page

License

eLua is Open Source and is freely -distributed under the GPL (migrating to BSD soon) licence.

+distributed under the MIT licence.

The Lua code (with all the eLua specific changes) is included in the source tree and is, of course, licensed under the same MIT license that Lua uses.

-

There are other components with different licenses in eLua, see the file COPYING in the source distribution for details.

-

The terms of each of these licences can be viewed on their own -pages at:

-

GPL -Licence

-

BSD -Licence

-

MIT -Licence

+

There may be other components with different licenses in eLua, see the file COPYING in the source distribution for details.

+

The terms of the MIT License can be viewed on Wikipedia at: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/MIT_License


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