LuaJIT 3.0 proposes modern syntax extensions

Modernizing LuaJIT's syntax brings the JIT runtime closer to modern scripting standards, reducing the boilerplate required for safe table navigation and bitwise operations. This is a pragmatic upgrade that balances ergonomics with strict backward compatibility.

• –Ergonomic additions: Operators like `??`, `?.`, and `+=` address long-standing complaints about Lua's lack of safety utilities and verbose assignment syntax.
• –FFI integration: The new operators (like bitwise shifts and nil-coalescing) seamlessly interact with LuaJIT FFI cdata and pointer types, simplifying low-level development.
• –Bootstrapping benefits: Backporting these features to the v2.1 branch is specifically designed to support LuaJIT's self-hosted compiler bootstrap process.
• –Tooling challenges: While beneficial for developers, LSPs and code formatters will need immediate updates to support these non-standard Lua grammar extensions.