[obsolete-m8n] neoLua

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[obsolete-m8n] neoLua

Installation

Note that Microsoft .NET Framework 4.7 (4.7.2 Developer Pack) is required
Download and install required .NET Core 2.2 SDK
on windows it will be installed at C:\Program Files\dotnet
After avoiding some issues with versions... the executable NeoCmd.exe has been built and this sample can be used to try loading S8.

Loading S8 in neoLua sample (NeoCmd)

We want load the S8 kernel snapshot to test if it runs, as it should be.
The S8 kernel snapshot can be found in m8n folder as s8.snapshot.lua
The documentation pages of NeoLua report some incompatibilities with standard Lua and also some functions that are not implemented.

loading s8.snapshot.lua

Build NeoCmd with Visual Studio
copy file s8.snapshot.lua to the same folder of the NeoCmd executable file
Run NeoCmd.exe and execute
```
:load s8.snapshot.lua
```

Result	The application couldn't load the snapshot (it is a standard lua source file). The load is reporting an exception while parsing the file. It sounds like the parser is assuming that functions can´t respond to #value message. IMO the parser is assuming core lua semantics at loading time, and triggering exception.
Exception reported	:load s8.snapshot.lua : Call: {0} ResetPositional: Algorithm: {0} Parse error at line 985 (column: 7): 'System.Func`1[Neo.IronLua.LuaResult]:value' not found. >

Loading snapshot in pieces

Trying to load the snapshot one section at a time, to check if it can load at least the boot section of S8 snapshot.

split the s8.snapshot.lua file in sections
- boot section - create a file named "s8.section1.lua" with the contents of s8.snapshot.lua upto the line before smalltalk:addClass("Object",nil,smalltalk:newArray({}),"Kernel")
- class definitions section - create a file named "s8.section2.lua" with the contents following boot section upto the line before smalltalk:bind(smalltalk.Object["$klass"],"eventsTriggered",0
- method definitions section - create a file named "s8.section3.lua" with the contents following class definitions section upto the end of s8.snapshot.lua file
Run NeoCmd application and load the first section with
```
:load s8.section1.lua
```

Loading first (boot) section

When trying to load first section we found that actually neoLua do NOT have support to extend behavior of strings, numbers, null, nor functions; so we cant run S8 kernel on top of neoLua.

Conclusions

So sorry, neoLua do not have actually the features we need to run S8.
The debug.setmetatable function do not implement complete Lua semantics (the value can be anything).
April 17,2019