My take on the use scripting languages for configuration may be read in [1,2]. In summary: I'm not too happy about using scripting languages for configuration, and would rather have separate somewhat _standard_ config system for basic configuration (integrated with Vis [3], possibly providing access through the FS, and maybe providing _rudimentary_ command-level scripting as well) [1]. Support for real scripting should be provided by a general exported API usable through any language being able to access some ___simplistic___ common language runtime infrastructure [2]. However, since decent versions of neither of these systems exist, using an easily embeddable scripting language like Lua is the path of least effort. And since Ion is "research code" (although in Ion2 and especially Ion3 it has recently strayed too far into becoming a proper software development project, which I don't like), I'm not going to spend too much time polishing it to be a flashy luser-compatible product. I rather concentrate on the ideas.
--- [1]: http://iki.fi/tuomov/b/archives/2007/01/20/T11_58_29/ [2]: http://iki.fi/tuomov/b/archives/2007/02/02/T18_49_51/ [3]: http://iki.fi/tuomov/vis/ -- Tuomo
