Getting LuaSDL for libSDL 1.2

LuaSDL is a binding to the famous libSDL 1.2 multimedia library. LuaSDL provides an interface not only to libSDL itself but also to the SDL_image, SDL_mixer, SDL_net, SDL_ttf, and SDL_gfx libraries.

Getting ready

The LuaSDL module depends on many external libraries. To make the module preparation easier, there's a LuaSDL project repository at GitHub with support for the CMake building system. This project repository contains all the necessary external libraries, which make module building process a breeze.

You'll need to have the following software installed to successfully build the LuaSDL module:

• The git version control system is available at https://git-scm.com/
• The CMake building system version 3.1 or newer is available at http://www.cmake.org/
• The C/C++ compiler, Microsoft Visual Studio, GCC, and clang are supported
• The Netwide Assembler—NASM (optional) used only for CPU-specific optimizations is available at http://www.nasm.us/

How to do it…

The building process of LuaSDL is the same on both Windows and Linux operating systems with minor differences:

1. Download the LuaSDL source code with the git command:

   git clone --recursive https://github.com/soulik/LuaSDL.git
   

2. You need to create an empty working directory, which will contain the project and binary files:

   mkdir LuaSDL/build
   cd LuaSDL/build
   

3. Now, you can run the CMake building tool to prepare the project files or to make further changes to the building configuration:

   cmake ..
   

4. After successful preparation of the building environment, you can either open the project file in your IDE or simply run the make command to start the compilation depending on the compiler of your choice:
   • For Microsoft Visual Studio—use the luasdl.sln file
   • For Linux users—use the make command
5. The successful compilation will result in binary files stored in the bin and lib directories.

Note that Microsoft Visual Studio will generate the .dll binary files in the bin directory, whereas, Linux users will find the same binary files in the lib directory. You can copy all the binary files into one directory where your Lua application resides. This will ensure that the Lua interpreter finds all the necessary binary modules.

There's more…

LuaSDL uses libSDL 1.2, which is more than 5 years old. Despite being no longer maintained, the LuaSDL package is considered as stable.

LuaSDL2 is being developed at the time of writing. You can access the source code from GitHub at https://github.com/soulik/LuaSDL-2.0.git.