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Correct me if I'm wrong, but it looks like this is using the mlua Rust bindings (which are excellent). It's not a Lua runtime from-scratch in Rust. It's the regular C Lua/LuaJIT with a Rust interface.

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You're thinking of the interpreter, not the runtime. The runtime is libraries, not the interpreter. The async-io frameworks and stuff like that. Just like how node.js is a javascript runtime, it uses the V8 engine, and bun is also a javascript runtime that uses javascriptcore instead. Neither one of them wrote their own javascript interpreter.

I think of the runtime as the whole execution stack. The interpreter, engine, JIT etc. is the back end. The interface to the world is a wrapper around that.

I would describe this as a Lua wrapper written in Rust. That carries the clear indication that you should not expect the interpreter to be written in Rust.

I would be (and indeed was) disappointed to see that this 'Lua runtime' did not have a Rust implementation of Lua. I would be much more interested in seeing that than a wrapper.

You are correct on this, I should have been more clear about the description. When I wrote the description I was in the headspace of BunJS and Deno. I will make note of this and write a better README description.

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