Wikipedia talk:Scribunto experimentation

Absolute idiot's guide

If we're doing this, we're going to need documentation for those of us with no knowledge of Lua - indeed, who are kind of rusty on a lot of programming. I've started documenting some of the lessons I've picked up learning from scratch at User:Wnt/Templates - obviously this is bottom bottom level, but I should point out that the existing manual ... needs a manual. Most of the quoted text that looks like code, for example, isn't code! Wnt (talk) 03:42, 29 August 2012 (UTC)

Thanks, Uncle G. ;) Wikipedia:Guide to Scribbling Wnt (talk) 01:31, 30 August 2012 (UTC)

Debuggers?

Is there a way to get more useful error messages than "Script error", provided the Lua compiles but (as usual) I've fouled something up?

Also, are there existing functions to "debug" a variable in a module, i.e. to get the absolute maximum amount of information about every possible field that exists in it? I've started running some tests e.g. (In this version I'm mystified why the array comes back empty, even though it has testable values I can record in the subroutine). Obviously though it'll be a long time till I have something, and surely someone must have seen a need for this already? Wnt (talk) 03:42, 29 August 2012 (UTC)

Ahhhhhh - the brand-new Wikipedia:Guide to Scribbling now reminds me to enable scripts for the test2 site, at which point "script error" is a hyperlink. Wnt (talk) 01:30, 30 August 2012 (UTC)

Novice question forum?

Maybe it's a little late, but I should ask, is this the forum for novice questions, and if not, should one be started? If you roll this out you'll have a lot of novices... Wnt (talk) 03:42, 29 August 2012 (UTC)

Date templates

Would do with somethnig writing to replace en:Template:Birth date and age and others. Will have a look myself later on. -- WOSlinker (talk) 12:04, 30 August 2012 (UTC)

• There are no os.time() and os.date() functions available. They have been removed. Template:Indian population clock and Module:Population clocks show an inefficient workaround. Uncle G (talk) 13:01, 30 August 2012 (UTC)