Is Lua development stagnated, or are there still new versions planned?

Question

I was looking into learning Lua because it has some interesting features (speed being one), and I noticed that there hasn't been a feature update since 2006. Has Lua development stopped? If it hasn't, where can I read about recent progress?

Edit: All caps Lua is what happens when you post on SO at 3 AM.

Answer 1

Lua development has stabilized not stagnated. There was a period where it was going through rapid releases. I think most Lua users are happy that period is over.

Answer 2

Lua development has certainly not stagnated. Work on Lua 5.2 in underway. Lua releases are just not frequent. See the HOPL paper for a discussion. See also the FAQ.

Answer 3

Actually Lua is very extensible, so there isn't too much that is needed and one of largest support bases is World Of Warcraft UI scripting where it has performed quite well and without anything major missing. So I suspect changes going forward would have to be absolutely backwards compatible and at a relatively long release cycle.

Answer 4

When it comes to programming languages, to have conservative release schedule is a virtue.

New Lua versions are released every few years.

I think, we may expect Lua 5.2 this or the next year.

P.S. Please never write Lua in all-caps.

Answer 5

If you have a look at their mailing list, you'll see there are plenty active developers using Lua and also, there are plans for a 5.2 release. The main Lua developers are also very active in the mailing lists, and they discuss proposed new features with power-users too.

Besides this, we'll have a Lua Workshop this year :)

Answer 6

No, I don't think so :) [news]