Improved Docs, AnimationStepApplyMesh+Materials, some other minor tweaks
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Docs/Tokens - A New Lua Type.md
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Docs/Tokens - A New Lua Type.md
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### A New Lua Type: Tokens
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Tokens are a custom Lua data type built on top of Lua's lightuserdata. They are mainly intended for use as sentinels and special reserved values.
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## Motivation
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Tokens were invented when we were developing a JSON-to-LUA converter. Such a converter is mostly straightforward: json tables and lua tables are very similar. However, we did encounter a stumbling block. Consider this JSON:
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```json
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{ "foo": null }
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```
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In Lua, setting a table key to nil deletes the key. There is no way to represent "foo is present with value null" in a Lua table. You might try `{foo = 0}` or `{foo = "null"}`, but both are lossy: you can no longer distinguish JSON null from the number 0 or the string "null". Any sentinel value drawn from an existing Lua type collides with legitimate values of that type.
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The solution is to use lightuserdata. A lightuserdata is a distinct Lua type — it cannot be confused with a string, number, boolean, or nil, and unlike nil, it can be stored in a table. The Luprex engine does not use lightuserdata for any other purpose, so all lightuserdata values are available for use as tokens.
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## What a Token Is
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A token is a short string encoded as a base36 number and stored in the 8-byte lightuserdata value. The lightuserdata is not actually a pointer to anything — it holds the base36-encoded integer directly. Tokens may only contain the characters a-z and 0-9. Since 36^12 fits in 64 bits but 36^13 does not, the maximum token length is 12 characters. That is sufficient for most natural identifiers.
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Since lightuserdata is not used for anything else, it is safe to assume that any lightuserdata in our engine represents a token.
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## The C++ Side: struct LuaToken
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On the C++ side, tokens are represented by `struct LuaToken` (in luastack.hpp). You can construct one from a string or from the raw integer:
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```cpp
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LuaToken("null") // parsed at compile time via consteval — becomes 0x10FAA9
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LuaToken(0x10FAA9) // equivalent raw value
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```
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The string form is preferred — it is readable, and because the constructor is `consteval`, it compiles down to the same constant as the raw integer. There is zero runtime cost. If the string contains invalid characters (anything outside a-z, 0-9) or is too long, the error is caught at compile time.
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There is also a runtime constructor that accepts `std::string_view`, for cases where the token string is not known at compile time.
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The LuaStack API provides the usual accessors for tokens:
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```cpp
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LS.set(slot, LuaToken("null")) // store a token in a LuaSlot
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LuaToken t = LS.cktoken(slot) // extract a token (error if not lightuserdata)
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auto t = LS.trytoken(slot) // extract a token (returns empty optional on mismatch)
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```
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Named token constants can be auto-registered into the Lua environment using the `LuaTokenConstant` macro, which works the same way `LuaDefine` auto-registers functions:
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```cpp
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LuaTokenConstant(null, "null", "Represents JSON null")
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```
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## Properties
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- **Distinct type.** Tokens are lightuserdata, a separate Lua type. They cannot collide with strings, numbers, booleans, tables, or nil.
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- **Storable in tables.** Unlike nil, tokens can be used as both table keys and table values.
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- **No allocation.** Tokens are 8 bytes inline. There is no heap allocation and no string interning.
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- **Fast comparison.** Comparing two tokens is just an integer comparison.
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## Limitation: No Token Literals in Lua
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Lua's parser has no syntax for token literals. In C++, you can write `LuaToken("null")` and it's clean and compile-time. In Lua, there is no equivalent — you cannot write a token literal the way you write `"hello"` or `42`.
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Currently, the way tokens are made available to Lua is that C++ code uses `LuaTokenConstant` to insert specific token values into global tables. Lua scripts can then reference these pre-registered constants by name.
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Modifying the Lua parser to add token literal syntax has been considered but is unappealing — it would be a significant and invasive patch. Adding a Lua function like `token("null")` to construct tokens at runtime is also possible and not off the table, but there hasn't been a need for it yet.
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## Passing Tokens to Unreal
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Tokens can get passed to Unreal in a variety of ways. For example, in animation step key-value pairs, the value can be a token. When animation queues are passed to Unreal, tokens are converted to FNames. Since both tokens and FNames are short identifier-like strings with fast comparison, the mapping is natural.
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## Usage
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Tokens are mainly intended as sentinels and special reserved values. The JSON null example above is the motivating case, but tokens can represent any short reserved constant the engine needs.
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