Lua

Also known as Lua language

Lua is a lightweight, high-level, multi-paradigm programming language designed mainly for embedded use in applications. Lua is cross-platform software, since the interpreter of compiled bytecode is written in ANSI C, and Lua has a relatively simple C application programming interface (API) to embed it into applications.

AI overview

Lua is a lightweight programming language designed to be embedded within other applications, offering a simple way for software developers to add scripting capabilities to their programs. Because its interpreter is written in standard C code, Lua runs on many different platforms and provides an easy interface for developers to integrate it into their applications.

AI-generated from the Wikipedia summary — may contain errors.

Key facts

Programming language.name: Lua
Programming language.logo: Lua-Logo.svg
Programming language.screenshot: Excerpt of Coordinates module in Lua.png
Programming language.screenshot_size: 250px
Programming language.screenshot caption: Screenshot of Lua code from a Wikipedia Lua module using the MediaWiki Scribunto extension
Programming language.paradigm: Multi-paradigm: scripting, imperative (procedural, prototype-based, object-oriented), functional, meta, reflective
Programming language.designer: Roberto IerusalimschyWaldemar CelesLuiz Henrique de Figueiredo
Programming language.typing: Dynamic, strong, duck
Programming language.implementations: [//www.lua.org/download.html Lua], LuaJIT, [//github.com/luavela/luavela LuaVela], MoonSharp,
Programming language.programming language: ANSI C
Programming language.dialects

~26 min read

Article

21 sections

Contents

History
Features
Syntax
Control flow
Functions
Tables
Metatables
Object-oriented programming
Inheritance
Implementation
C API
Modules
Applications
Derived languages
Languages that compile to Lua
Dialects
See also
Notes
References
Further reading
External links

Lua originated in 1993 as a language for extending software applications to meet the increasing demand for customization at the time. It provided the basic facilities of most procedural programming languages, but more complicated or domain-specific features were not included; rather, it included mechanisms for extending the language, allowing programmers to implement such features. As Lua was intended to be a general embeddable extension language, the designers of Lua focused on improving its speed, portability, extensibility and ease-of-use in development.