René's URL Explorer Experiment

{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"DiscussionForumPosting","headline":"string scape must be integer","articleBody":"If we are going to use hex escapes or even special characters like `ã`, `á`, `à` in TypeScript targeting Lua, it is important that they are escaped in Lua 5.1’s decimal escape format (\\ddd) for better compatibility. **This is because Lua 5.1 does not support hexadecimal escapes**, and using decimal escapes is the best way to correctly represent UTF-8 bytes.\n\nCurrently, even if characters are escaped in hex in TypeScript, they remain special characters in Lua, which can cause compatibility issues and incorrect string interpretation.\n\n**typescript**\n\n```js\nconsole.log('atenção')\nconsole.log('aten\\xC3\\xA7\\xC3\\xA3o')\n```\n\n**lua (current)**\n```lua\nprint('atenção')\nprint('atenção')\n```\n\n**lua (proposal)**\n```lua\nprint('aten\\195\\167\\195\\163o')\nprint('aten\\195\\167\\195\\163o')\n```\n\nAs a practical example, I have created a JavaScript tool that performs this conversion and that I use daily for Lua 5.1 string escaping:\n\nhttps://gly-engine.github.io/tool-lua51-text-escape\n\nI would like to open a GitHub issue to have this considered and fixed, since it affects portability and proper UTF-8 string handling when converting TS code to Lua 5.1.","author":{"url":"https://github.com/RodrigoDornelles","@type":"Person","name":"RodrigoDornelles"},"datePublished":"2025-08-08T19:51:47.000Z","interactionStatistic":{"@type":"InteractionCounter","interactionType":"https://schema.org/CommentAction","userInteractionCount":0},"url":"https://github.com/1652/TypeScriptToLua/issues/1652"}