The release archive currently extracts directly into the working directory. I'll package future releases into a dedicated top-level directory to avoid cluttering the extraction location.
I'd be very interested in your feedback once you've had a chance to explore the codebase. Multi-platform GUI support is definitely something I'd like to see emerge through Clx binary modules and the C++ API.
Feel free to reach out on GitHub when you're ready — additional platform expertise would be greatly appreciated.
Love.js is already a mature solution for running Love2D games in the browser through WebAssembly. Clx currently focuses on ahead-of-time compilation to native executables rather than web deployment.
The idea I was referring to is more about native distribution: compiling Lua code into standalone executables without requiring a Lua runtime on the target machine.
That said, if Clx eventually gains a WebAssembly backend, it could become an interesting alternative path for Lua-to-web deployment.
Loading precompiled CLX modules is a different problem though. In theory, a native module could be loaded and executed with a restricted environment, similar to how Lua modules receive a specific `_ENV`.
It's not something CLX supports today, but it's much closer to the project's goals than runtime compilation of Lua source code.
One challenge is that standard Lua does not provide a way to change a function's `_ENV` after compilation (unlike the old `setfenv/getfenv` mechanism from Lua 5.1).
I've been considering adding environment manipulation capabilities to the CLX C++ API (while keeping Lua compatibility intact). If that happens, loading CLX modules into custom environments could become relatively straightforward.
This is exactly the kind of scenario where I think third-party clx modules make sense: keep the core runtime portable and let platform-specific bindings live outside of it.
A clx-objc (or metal-cpp or any gui backend) module would be an interesting experiment, and the same approach could apply to other platforms (Win32, GTK, etc.)
Clx is still a relatively young project, so please be a bit indulgent with bugs or missing features, but I'd definitely be interested in seeing/helping what you build!
That's an interesting idea, but I'd probably lean towards a third-party clx module rather than adding Objective-C runtime support directly to clx.
Since clx already exposes a C++ API and is able to link clx modules, projects like metal-cpp are a natural fit and don't require any changes to the runtime, or any FFI tricks.
That keeps the core runtime small while still allowing platform-specific integrations.
- clx compiles directly from Lua source code. It has its own parser and C++20 code generator; it does not use Lua bytecode
- The goal isn't necessarily to beat Lua, but some workloads benefit from the optimizations performed by modern C++ compilers.
As for tables, clx doesn't use a naive boxed-object model. Tables have a split array/hash layout: integer keys are stored in a contiguous array, while other keys use an open-addressed hash table. That keeps common accesses cache-friendly and avoids a lot of pointer chasing.
loadfile() isn't implemented in clx, and neither are the other dynamic code-loading features. Supporting them would require runtime code interpretation, which doesn't fit clx's current AOT model.
Could that change one day? Maybe, but it's not a priority right now.
I wasn't familiar with Shedskin, I'll take a look !
The optimization I'm most proud of is native type specialization when possible, allowing many values to stay as int64_t or double instead of generic slow Lua values.
As for eval, Clx is fully ahead-of-time compiled. Supporting it would require embedding an interpreter in the runtime and use an interface with Clx... making it significantly larger and going against the idea of compiling everything ahead of time.
For dynamic code execution, the Lua interpreter is probably the better tool.
Yes, game development is one of the use cases I had in mind. Since Clx is fully ahead-of-time compiled, it avoids the JIT restrictions present on iOS and relies on the platform's normal native toolchain.
But Clx currently only supports Linux, Windows and macOS, including Apple Silicon. I haven't tested it on iOS yet, so I can't claim iOS support at this stage.
The main motivation wasn't a particular C++20 feature, but using GCC, Clang and MSVC as a portable optimization and code generation backend instead of LLVM or custom machine code generation.
As for coroutines, no. Clx doesn't use C++20 coroutines because Lua coroutines are stackful, so the runtime uses platform-specific context switching instead.
I'm thrilled to announce the latest version of rtc, a standalone tool that compiles your Lua 5.4.8 scripts into native Windows .exe applications—no Makefile, no C compiler, and no Lua installation required.
But here’s the real game-changer: rtc supports full static compilation, meaning you can embed Lua binary modules directly into your executable—and they’ll load seamlessly via require() just like regular Lua files. This opens the door to packaging powerful native extensions without worrying about external dependencies.
Static Lua binary modules need just to be recompiled with the lua54-static.lib library from LuaRT distribution (rtc is coded using LuaRT).
Here are the main features :
- Standalone tool – No Makefile or external compiler needed
LuaRT extends Lua 5.4 -a language valued for its beginner-friendly syntax and simplicity- to create console and desktop applications on Windows. It includes runtime modules and tools to make development accessible for newcomers while supporting complex tasks with minimal effort.
Key Features
- Beginner-Friendly: Lua’s straightforward syntax makes Luart approachable for novices, while still enabling complex tasks—like crafting GUIs or handling web requests—with concise code.
- Lightweight Runtime: The LuaRT runtime is compact and self-contained, relying on no external libraries, ensuring minimal overhead and easy deployment.
- Object-Oriented Programming: LuaRT enhances Lua with robust OOP support, including multilevel inheritance, mixins, constructors, destructors, properties, and more, for structured and reusable code.
- Asynchronous Programming: LuaRT includes a Task object for asynchronous operations, supporting async/await/after paradigms to simplify non-blocking code (e.g., running tasks in the background or scheduling delayed actions).
- Batteries Included: LuaRT contains lots of modules to cover most of today’s programming tasks, such as: json data parsing, audio playing and recording, clipboard access, Windows registry management, process control, compression, sqlite for database operations, C FFI module to call C functions from your Lua scripts, and more ...
- Enhanced ui Module with Windows light/dark themes, HighDPI support, WebView2 widget for displaying web content, and interact with it from Lua, Hardware-accelerated Direct2D rendering with the Canvas widget.
- Bundled Development Tools: LuaRT Studio IDE, RTBuilder a RAD designer, and rtc, the Lua to executable compiler.
- Documentation: A thorough guide (over 1,000 pages) covers modules, examples, and tutorials,...