The next meeting is 1 November 2012 at 18:30. Hope to see you all there.... Luawrap - wrapping lua scripts into self executing files by David Whale luawrap started off as an idea without a language back in 2006, when David wanted to settle on a single language for scripting purposes, with a way of turning scripts into executables that can be given to customers (so they can use, but not steal all his neat ideas). Almost on the verge of writing his own language, a friend introduced him to lua. But the "self executing script" idea still stood as a strong requirement, and he developed some simple elegant techniques. luawrap allows lua programmers to wrap their lua scripts into standalone executables with no external system dependencies, without needing to install or use any special tools, whilst providing the option to hide the intellectual property embedded inside the executable. This talk looks at some of the challenges involved, and some of the neat things you can do with self executing lua scripts. David Whale David Whale runs a small software consultancy, mainly developing embedded firmware for neat gadgets. His claim to fame was being part of the development team for the GSM MODEM used inside the very first Blackberry devices, and was probably the first person to walk into a lamp-post texting on one. As part of his day job, he finds himself regularly writing little lua scripts to automate code generation, testing, post-mortem log analysis, web statistics analysis and website generation, amongst other things. David has been using lua for the last 6 years, recently delving deep into the C sources and making it jump through a few more hoops. He lives in Essex, and is trying to cultivate a nomadic lifestyle roaming between coffee shops and libraries, where all he needs is a laptop, a mobile phone, and a lua interpreter to get his job done. Sign up link available shortly.