The following call sequence is possible:
C++ -> Lua -> C++ -> Lua -> C++
The first block of C++ is the Lean main function.
The main function invokes the Lua interpreter.
The Lua interpreter invokes a C++ Lean API.
Then the Lean API invokes a callback implemented in Lua.
The Lua callback invokes another Lean API.
Now, suppose the Lean API throws an exception.
We want the C++ exception to propagate over the mixed C++/Lua call stack.
We use the clone/rethrow exception idiom to achieve this goal.
Before this commit, the C++ exceptions were converted into strings
using the method what(), and then they were propagated over the Lua
stack using lua_error. A lua_error was then converted into a lua_exception when going back to C++.
This solution was very unsatisfactory, since all C++ exceptions were being converted into a lua_exception, and consequently the structure of the exception was being lost.
Signed-off-by: Leonardo de Moura <leonardo@microsoft.com>