to lua

[roboso]

good morning, why did you switch to lua after so many years?
I see it as counterproductive.. the beauty of conky was its simplicity, now I don't understand a thing anymore.. and honestly I don't have time to sit there studying for a little program that has always been beautiful and simple.

[Caellian]

I wasn't even using linux yet when it had happened 15+ years ago but here's why I'd probably want to do so if it still had custom config syntax:

• Using Lua greatly simplifies code because contributors can focus on new features instead of working on config parser.
• It's a lot more powerful than anything that was previously possible.
  • Lua scripts can directly hook into the underlying graphics library, allowing users to customize what's being drawn a lot.
  • Configuration files can handle window events, cycle through different displays, and a lot more with minimal extra effort.
    • Previously this was possible but extremely annoying to do, required external tooling, wasn't easy to recreate across systems, ...
  • Conky can support animated content with Lua.
• Compared to the previous syntax, there's very few and minor changes for simple configs. If you don't know and use lua, you can easily get by by just wrapping segments of old config in correct braces and label.