Lua i18n fork

This repository is a defluent Lua variant focused on internationalization: locale-driven keywords/operators/diagnostics, symbolic-locale stress support, and kernel-locale bootstrap/generation paths integrated in the build.

For the official Lua project, language reference, releases, and upstream communication, use Lua.org, the download page, and the Lua mailing list.

In short: this repo tracks Lua core evolution while intentionally diverging to explore and validate end-to-end interpreter localization.

A kernel locale is the compile-time default locale baked into the interpreter for bootstrap-facing tokens/labels and initial locale loading behavior. It is selected with LUA_KERNEL_LOCALE during build.

Default host-aware flags are set in makefile, so a plain make should compile on supported Linux/Darwin setups.

List currently supported locale names:

find locale -mindepth 2 -maxdepth 2 -name '*.lua' | sed 's#^locale/##; s#/[^/]*\\.lua$##' | sort -u

make clean
make MYCFLAGS='-std=c99 -DLUA_USE_LINUX' MYLDFLAGS='-Wl,-E' MYLIBS='-ldl' CC=gcc

Build with a different default kernel locale and regenerate its kernel header:

make locale-build LUA_KERNEL_LOCALE='<locale-name>' \
  MYCFLAGS='-std=c99 -DLUA_USE_LINUX' \
  MYLDFLAGS='-Wl,-E' MYLIBS='-ldl' CC=gcc

make clean
make MYCFLAGS='-std=c99 -DLUA_USE_WINDOWS' MYLDFLAGS='' MYLIBS='' CC=gcc

Build with a different default kernel locale:

make locale-build LUA_KERNEL_LOCALE='<locale-name>' \
  MYCFLAGS='-std=c99 -DLUA_USE_WINDOWS' \
  MYLDFLAGS='' MYLIBS='' CC=gcc

make clean
make MYCFLAGS='-std=c99 -DLUA_USE_POSIX -DLUA_USE_DLOPEN -DLUA_READLINELIB="\"/opt/homebrew/opt/readline/lib/libreadline.dylib\""' MYLDFLAGS="" MYLIBS="" CC=cc

Build with a different default kernel locale:

make locale-build LUA_KERNEL_LOCALE='<locale-name>' \
  MYCFLAGS='-std=c99 -DLUA_USE_POSIX -DLUA_USE_DLOPEN -DLUA_READLINELIB="\"/opt/homebrew/opt/readline/lib/libreadline.dylib\""' \
  MYLDFLAGS="" MYLIBS="" CC=cc

For all platforms, <locale-name> maps to locale/<locale-name>/<locale-name>.lua and regenerates locale/<locale-name>/<locale-name>_kernel_autogenerated.h. The committed bootstrap header lives at locale/native/native_kernel_autogenerated.h. Use LUA_KERNEL_LOCALE=native to return to the native default.

Shorthand target aliases also exist per locale directory name. For example:

make esperanto
make native
make 'symbolic·transpraxis'

Each is equivalent to make locale-build LUA_KERNEL_LOCALE=<that-locale>. They reuse the same host-aware defaults as plain make.

A kernel locale is the compile-time default baked into the interpreter's bootstrap. It affects:

• Lexer token names in error diagnostics (e.g., syntax error near 'xyz' vs eraro ĉe ...)
• Interactive prompt labels and REPL messages
• Initial locale fallback when LUA_LOCALE is not set
• The locale loaded at startup to initialize keyword/operator/diagnostic mappings

Pros of kernel locales:

• Diagnose syntax errors in the native language without relying on runtime locale loading
• Smaller startup overhead (locale names/keywords already in binary)
• Consistent experience for interactive REPL users in that language
• Useful for embedded use (single-locale deployments)

Cons of kernel locales:

• Requires recompilation to change default language
• Larger binary (kernel locale header is ~5KB per locale)
• Less flexibility than pure runtime locales

Runtime locale fallback: If the kernel locale fails to load at startup (e.g., missing locale/<kernel>/ directory), the interpreter falls back to the base English kernel and attempts to load the locale file specified by LUA_LOCALE environment variable or the hardcoded default.

When switching between kernel locales (make native, make esperanto, etc.), the build system tracks the active kernel locale in .last-kernel-locale. This stamp file enables incremental builds:

• First build (make esperanto): Full recompile, writes esperanto to .last-kernel-locale
• Repeated build with same locale (make esperanto again): Zero recompilation (stamp matches, source unchanged)
• Locale switch (make native): Detects stamp mismatch, runs make clean, recompiles, updates stamp

This avoids the overhead of forced full rebuilds when running locale-specific test sweeps (e.g., for l in native esperanto symbolic·transpraxis; do make $l && ./lua ...; done).

Note: .last-kernel-locale is automatically generated and should not be committed (see .gitignore).

Quick end-to-end validation (from repository root):

./lua utilitary/internationalization-healthcheck