Having a problem with building py-lua

[marioboi3112]

I wanted to use python modules with lua and stumbled upon this lib and said I was gonna give it a shot, i downloaded the dependencies and seems like its missing a Python.h file when i try gmake (i used gmake as an action), are there any solutions for this problem?

[Vipul-Cariappa]

Looks like it is not able to locate the Python.h header file required to build the library.
Try installing dependencies with (if on debian (ubuntu) based distro)

apt install python3-dev liblua5.4-dev

Also, you may want to update the Python path/version in the premake5.lua at
https://github.com/Vipul-Cariappa/py-lua/blob/main/premake5.lua#L13-L14
and
https://github.com/Vipul-Cariappa/py-lua/blob/main/premake5.lua#L19-L20

Let me know how it goes.

It's been a very long time since I worked on this.

[Vipul-Cariappa]

Can you give a use case or an example?

[marioboi3112]

For example, If i wanted to use pygame in lua, is there a function for it in py-lua, in which i can just go like
local pygame = pyImportModule("pygame") and go like

require("pylua")
pygame = Python.luaImportPyModule("pygame") -- import this python module from pip into this lua file

pygame.init()
local window = pygame.display.set_mode({400,400}) -- tuples dont exist in lua so used tables instead (will most probably not work)
while(true) do
    for k, v in pairs(pymodule.pygame.event.get()) do
        if type(v) == pymodule.pygame.QUIT then
            pygame.quit()
        end
    end
end

...

[Vipul-Cariappa]

This is a nice use case. I tried it out myself.

Lua 5.4.7  Copyright (C) 1994-2024 Lua.org, PUC-Rio
> require("pylua")                                                                                      true    ./pylua.so
> py_sys = Python.PyLoad("sys")
> py_os = Python.PyLoad("os")
> py_ds = Python.PyLoad("collections")
> py_sys.version
3.13.1 (main, Dec 23 2024, 22:19:34) [GCC 14.2.1 20240910]
> pygame = Python.PyLoad("pygame")
Error: Could Not Import the Python Module

Python Traceback:
File "/home/vipul-cariappa/Documents/Workspace/bindings/py-lua/venv/lib/python3.13/site-packages/pygame/__init__.py", line 92, in
  <module>

  ImportError('/home/vipul-cariappa/Documents/Workspace/bindings/py-lua/venv/lib/python3.13/site-packages/pygame/base.cpython-313-x86_64-linux-gnu.so: undefined symbol: PyFloat_Type')

stack traceback:
        [C]: in field 'PyLoad'
        stdin:1: in main chunk
        [C]: in ?

Looks like it can import all Python builtins, but not pip installed packages. I also tried it with numpy, and it failed.
I will need to debug it. It should be fixable. But I am not sure when I will have sufficient time to fix it.

---

Another thing. Not related to the issue itself.

There are too many indirections if you use pygame through Lua.
Pygame is a Python wrapper to a underlying C library, py-lua is a wrapper around Python. So you will be using a C library through 2 intermediates; Python and Lua 😄.

[marioboi3112]

Oh yeah! that doesnt seem like the best option to use PyGame, well atleast its good that the python builtins are able to work, but isnt numpy on pip (makes sense why it didnt work for you...)
Thanks a lot for the help Sir, highly appreciate it! Cheers
Edit:
I figured out a way to avoid the issue of pygame, i basically made a python file and that file imports pygame, then i use pylua to import that python file like pymodule=Python.pyload("mymodule") then
access pygame functions like

pymodule.pygame.init()
pymodule.pygame.display.update(FPS)

and so on, but aint sure if its a good idea to use it this way!

[Vipul-Cariappa]

I don't think it should be a problem.
Let me know how it goes.
Cheers.