This talk describes an approach for combining C++17 with Lua. A key benefit of this combination is its flexibility i.e. performance critical features can be implemented in C++, whereas, behavioural aspects can be expressed in Lua. As Lua is interpreted, the program's behaviour can be changed on-the-fly or in the field without a compiler. Thus, hypotheses can be tested, workarounds can be explored and previously unknown requirements can be accommodated without requiring a full 'implement-test-release' cycle.

This session describes how to implement a software architecture that combines C++17 and Lua. The aim of the session is to provide enough technical detail so that the audience is able to integrate these ideas into their own projects. In particular, this talk will show how to use SWIG to map types between modern C++ and Lua, how to combine C++17 concurrency abstractions with Lua coroutines and how to integrate SWIG, Lua and C++17 into a CMake build flow. The talk also describes how these ideas apply to certain C++20 features, for example, how C++20 coroutines complement coroutines in Lua.

A further benefit is that these ideas have been tested in a large commercial deployment. As a running example, the talk will describe how Blu Wireless (the author's employer) is migrating a mission-critical embedded application from a monolithic C++98 code-base to the C++17 / Lua architecture described here. In addition to the talk, there will be a live coding demonstration (with code available on GitHub) to consolidate the concepts and to provide a basis for further experimentation.