What would be a good way to set up equivalent of Lua-for-Windows on Linux?

Question

My primary development environment is Linux (Debian particularly), but for various reasons, I began learning / using Lua (that too recently), in the Windows environment. I like the Lua-for-Windows (batteries-included) approach, and the SciTE IDE that ships with it, with the embedded debugging functionalities, over and above the plain-vanilla SciTE IDE.

On Linux however, having installed the standard Lua5.1 package on Debian via the standard apt repositories, I find that the IDE is missing.

Also, while I've not checked exhaustively, but I got the impression that not all the libraries (that'd make sense, since they are cross-platform) shipped with LfW, are available as part of the standard Lua5.1 package on Debian. How do I do an exhaustive check ?

Finally, to install any missing / additional libraries on Debian side, is LuaRocks the preferred and recommended approach ?

Answer 1

If you are looking for a Lua IDE to run on Linux, try ZeroBrane Studio. It's in many ways similar to SciTE as it's based on the same Scintilla editor and is available on Windows/Linux/OSX.

For installing libraries you need, I'd start with LuaRocks.

Answer 2

As far as batteries are concerned, there are some major differences in several windows and linux release of various lua modules.

For the IDE, you can import SciTEGlobal.properties file to your own SciTE setup/directory in debian, or more importantly; the user.toolbar section. These lines are what make SciTE an IDE:

run|IDM_GO|Run Program|\
stop|IDM_STOPEXECUTE|Kill Program|\
terminal|lua;no;start_lua_prompt|Launch Interactive Lua|\
load|lua;yes;load_current_lua_file|Load Lua File into Interactive Session|\
|||\
debug|lua;yes;do_run|Debug Program/Continue|\
breakpoint|lua;no;do_breakpoint|Set Breakpoint|\
step|lua;no;do_step|Step|\
step_over|lua;no;do_next|Step Over|\
step_out|lua;no;do_finish|Step Out|\
watch|lua;no;do_watch|Watch Variable|\
inspect|lua;no;do_inspect|Inspect Variable|\
stack|lua;no;do_backtrace|Stack Trace|\
stopd|lua;no;do_kill|Stop Debugging|