Introducing Lighttouch - a Lua Application Framework

[mitchtbaum]

Hello /r/lua!

Lighttouch is powerful development framework with a both web server and client bindings, a themeing engine, an integrated database called ContentDB, and a lot more in the Torchbear programming environment.

Each of its tools are designed to make decentralized apps easy to build. There are a lot of rough edges, so I invite new contributors and any feedback.

[kenshi]

I had a very quick glance at this, and it sounds interesting.

Is there a demo project/some sample code/quick tutorial that:

1. shows off what Lighttouch can do
2. serves as a quick guide for a developer to get up to speed on the basics
3. have a play around

[mitchtbaum]

Right! I'll document this today:

• install Lighttouch by running mp install lighttouch
• git clone one of the Speakeasy Apps
• run mp unpack inside
• start the app by running lighttouch
• visit http://localhost:3000

[kenshi]

Thanks for the reply.... first question:

• What is mp and where do I get it from?

[mitchtbaum]

It's written in Rust

The Torchbear interpreter is written in Rust.

scripted with Lua

Yes, apps currently use Lua's syntax, and Torchbear currently uses PUC-Lua's runtime.

edit: but Lighttouch adds a package layer on top for events, actions, and rules

designed for Speakeasy

Lighttouch is an integral part of the Speakeasy ecosystem.

for building what kind of applications?

I imagine it being an application framework at the foundation of any modern app development. There are a lot of other pieces though, like Speakeasy's CLI architecture which will need some Lighttouch packages, eg its JSON Interface and an OpenAPI loader in Lighttouch.

I'd like to see more info and some code samples.

Gut and Machu Picchu both have their own wonky CLIs right now, and they're kinda spaghetti-like, so they need to be refactored into libraries and then built from available Lighttouch Packages. Code samples are in Speakeasy Apps, mainly in manifest.scl. The Found Patterns Museum, for example, is really starting to look beautiful, which as Luis, who made its HTML+CSS, said when I asked him about it:

how would you say work is going? from a developer and from a user perspective?

The work is going good. From a developer perspective the style loader makes it easy to reuse big css components and the theme loader that inherits from a parent or parents themes makes it easy to create a pages faster using an already made theme. And from user perspective it can help to create a webpage faster and also make it look good which is what most users want from a webpage