Strawberrry
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What is Lua?
Lua is a powerful, efficient, lightweight, embeddable scripting language. It supports procedural programming, object-oriented programming, functional programming, data-driven programming, and data description.
Lua combines simple procedural syntax with powerful data description constructs based on associative arrays and extensible semantics. Lua is dynamically typed, runs by interpreting bytecode with a register-based virtual machine, and has automatic memory management with incremental garbage collection, making it ideal for configuration, scripting, and rapid prototyping.
Where does Lua come from?
Lua is designed, implemented, and maintained by a You do not have permission to view the full content of this post. Log in or register now. at You do not have permission to view the full content of this post. Log in or register now., the Pontifical Catholic University of Rio de Janeiro in Brazil. Lua was born and raised in You do not have permission to view the full content of this post. Log in or register now., formerly the Computer Graphics Technology Group of PUC-Rio. Lua is now housed at You do not have permission to view the full content of this post. Log in or register now., a laboratory of the You do not have permission to view the full content of this post. Log in or register now. of PUC-Rio.
What's in a name?
"Lua" (pronounced LOO-ah) means "Moon" in Portuguese. As such, it is neither an acronym nor an abbreviation, but a noun. More specifically, "Lua" is a name, the name of the Earth's moon and the name of the language. Like most names, it should be written in lower case with an initial capital, that is, "Lua". Please do not write it as "LUA", which is both ugly and confusing, because then it becomes an acronym with You do not have permission to view the full content of this post. Log in or register now. for different people. So, please, write "Lua" right!
Joining the community
There are several You do not have permission to view the full content of this post. Log in or register now. for the Lua You do not have permission to view the full content of this post. Log in or register now. where you can go to learn and help others and You do not have permission to view the full content of this post. Log in or register now. in other ways. One of the focal points is the You do not have permission to view the full content of this post. Log in or register now., which is very You do not have permission to view the full content of this post. Log in or register now. and friendly.
You can meet part of the Lua community in person by attending a You do not have permission to view the full content of this post. Log in or register now..
Supporting Lua
You can help to You do not have permission to view the full content of this post. Log in or register now. by You do not have permission to view the full content of this post. Log in or register now. published by Lua.org and by You do not have permission to view the full content of this post. Log in or register now..
You can also help to spread the word about Lua by buying Lua products atYou do not have permission to view the full content of this post. Log in or register now..
Why choose Lua?
Lua is a proven, robust language
Lua has been used in You do not have permission to view the full content of this post. Log in or register now. (e.g., You do not have permission to view the full content of this post. Log in or register now.), with an emphasis on embedded systems (e.g., the You do not have permission to view the full content of this post. Log in or register now.middleware for digital TV in Brazil) and You do not have permission to view the full content of this post. Log in or register now. (e.g., You do not have permission to view the full content of this post. Log in or register now. and Angry Birds). Lua is currently You do not have permission to view the full content of this post. Log in or register now.. Lua has a solid You do not have permission to view the full content of this post. Log in or register now. and there are You do not have permission to view the full content of this post. Log in or register now.. SeveralYou do not have permission to view the full content of this post. Log in or register now. of Lua have been released and used in You do not have permission to view the full content of this post. Log in or register now. since its creation in 1993. Lua featured in You do not have permission to view the full content of this post. Log in or register now., in 2007. Lua won the You do not have permission to view the full content of this post. Log in or register now. from the You do not have permission to view the full content of this post. Log in or register now..
Lua is fast
Lua has a deserved reputation for performance. To claim to be "as fast as Lua" is an aspiration of other scripting languages. Several benchmarks show Lua as the fastest language in the realm of interpreted scripting languages. Lua is fast not only in fine-tuned benchmark programs, but in real life too. Substantial fractions of large applications have been written in Lua.
If you need even more speed, try You do not have permission to view the full content of this post. Log in or register now., an independent implementation of Lua using a just-in-time compiler.
Lua is portable
Lua is You do not have permission to view the full content of this post. Log in or register now. in a small package and builds out-of-the-box in all platforms that have a standard C compiler. Lua runs on all flavors of Unix and Windows, on mobile devices (running Android, iOS, BREW, Symbian, Windows Phone), on embedded microprocessors (such as ARM and Rabbit, for applications like Lego MindStorms), on IBM mainframes, etc.
For specific reasons why Lua is a good choice also for constrained devices, read You do not have permission to view the full content of this post. Log in or register now. by Mike Pall. See also a You do not have permission to view the full content of this post. Log in or register now. created by Timm Müller.
Lua is embeddable
Lua is a fast language engine with small footprint that you can embed easily into your application. Lua has a simple and well documented API that allows strong integration with code written in other languages. It is easy to extend Lua with libraries written in other languages. It is also easy to extend programs written in other languages with Lua. Lua has been used to extend programs written not only in C and C++, but also in Java, C#, Smalltalk, Fortran, Ada, Erlang, and even in other scripting languages, such as Perl and Ruby.
Lua is powerful (but simple)
A fundamental concept in the design of Lua is to provide meta-mechanismsfor implementing features, instead of providing a host of features directly in the language. For example, although Lua is not a pure object-oriented language, it does provide meta-mechanisms for implementing classes and inheritance. Lua's meta-mechanisms bring an economy of concepts and keep the language small, while allowing the semantics to be extended in unconventional ways.
Lua is small
Adding Lua to an application does not bloat it. The You do not have permission to view the full content of this post. Log in or register now., which contains source code and documentation, takes 297K compressed and 1.2M uncompressed. The source contains around 24000 lines of C. Under 64-bit Linux, the Lua interpreter built with all standard Lua libraries takes 247K and the Lua library takes 421K.
Lua is free
Lua is free open-source software, distributed under a You do not have permission to view the full content of this post. Log in or register now.(the well-known MIT license). It may be used for any purpose, including commercial purposes, at absolutely no cost. Just You do not have permission to view the full content of this post. Log in or register now. it and use it.
credits to Lua.org
Lua is a powerful, efficient, lightweight, embeddable scripting language. It supports procedural programming, object-oriented programming, functional programming, data-driven programming, and data description.
Lua combines simple procedural syntax with powerful data description constructs based on associative arrays and extensible semantics. Lua is dynamically typed, runs by interpreting bytecode with a register-based virtual machine, and has automatic memory management with incremental garbage collection, making it ideal for configuration, scripting, and rapid prototyping.
Where does Lua come from?
Lua is designed, implemented, and maintained by a You do not have permission to view the full content of this post. Log in or register now. at You do not have permission to view the full content of this post. Log in or register now., the Pontifical Catholic University of Rio de Janeiro in Brazil. Lua was born and raised in You do not have permission to view the full content of this post. Log in or register now., formerly the Computer Graphics Technology Group of PUC-Rio. Lua is now housed at You do not have permission to view the full content of this post. Log in or register now., a laboratory of the You do not have permission to view the full content of this post. Log in or register now. of PUC-Rio.
What's in a name?
"Lua" (pronounced LOO-ah) means "Moon" in Portuguese. As such, it is neither an acronym nor an abbreviation, but a noun. More specifically, "Lua" is a name, the name of the Earth's moon and the name of the language. Like most names, it should be written in lower case with an initial capital, that is, "Lua". Please do not write it as "LUA", which is both ugly and confusing, because then it becomes an acronym with You do not have permission to view the full content of this post. Log in or register now. for different people. So, please, write "Lua" right!
Joining the community
There are several You do not have permission to view the full content of this post. Log in or register now. for the Lua You do not have permission to view the full content of this post. Log in or register now. where you can go to learn and help others and You do not have permission to view the full content of this post. Log in or register now. in other ways. One of the focal points is the You do not have permission to view the full content of this post. Log in or register now., which is very You do not have permission to view the full content of this post. Log in or register now. and friendly.
You can meet part of the Lua community in person by attending a You do not have permission to view the full content of this post. Log in or register now..
Supporting Lua
You can help to You do not have permission to view the full content of this post. Log in or register now. by You do not have permission to view the full content of this post. Log in or register now. published by Lua.org and by You do not have permission to view the full content of this post. Log in or register now..
You can also help to spread the word about Lua by buying Lua products atYou do not have permission to view the full content of this post. Log in or register now..
Why choose Lua?
Lua is a proven, robust language
Lua has been used in You do not have permission to view the full content of this post. Log in or register now. (e.g., You do not have permission to view the full content of this post. Log in or register now.), with an emphasis on embedded systems (e.g., the You do not have permission to view the full content of this post. Log in or register now.middleware for digital TV in Brazil) and You do not have permission to view the full content of this post. Log in or register now. (e.g., You do not have permission to view the full content of this post. Log in or register now. and Angry Birds). Lua is currently You do not have permission to view the full content of this post. Log in or register now.. Lua has a solid You do not have permission to view the full content of this post. Log in or register now. and there are You do not have permission to view the full content of this post. Log in or register now.. SeveralYou do not have permission to view the full content of this post. Log in or register now. of Lua have been released and used in You do not have permission to view the full content of this post. Log in or register now. since its creation in 1993. Lua featured in You do not have permission to view the full content of this post. Log in or register now., in 2007. Lua won the You do not have permission to view the full content of this post. Log in or register now. from the You do not have permission to view the full content of this post. Log in or register now..
Lua is fast
Lua has a deserved reputation for performance. To claim to be "as fast as Lua" is an aspiration of other scripting languages. Several benchmarks show Lua as the fastest language in the realm of interpreted scripting languages. Lua is fast not only in fine-tuned benchmark programs, but in real life too. Substantial fractions of large applications have been written in Lua.
If you need even more speed, try You do not have permission to view the full content of this post. Log in or register now., an independent implementation of Lua using a just-in-time compiler.
Lua is portable
Lua is You do not have permission to view the full content of this post. Log in or register now. in a small package and builds out-of-the-box in all platforms that have a standard C compiler. Lua runs on all flavors of Unix and Windows, on mobile devices (running Android, iOS, BREW, Symbian, Windows Phone), on embedded microprocessors (such as ARM and Rabbit, for applications like Lego MindStorms), on IBM mainframes, etc.
For specific reasons why Lua is a good choice also for constrained devices, read You do not have permission to view the full content of this post. Log in or register now. by Mike Pall. See also a You do not have permission to view the full content of this post. Log in or register now. created by Timm Müller.
Lua is embeddable
Lua is a fast language engine with small footprint that you can embed easily into your application. Lua has a simple and well documented API that allows strong integration with code written in other languages. It is easy to extend Lua with libraries written in other languages. It is also easy to extend programs written in other languages with Lua. Lua has been used to extend programs written not only in C and C++, but also in Java, C#, Smalltalk, Fortran, Ada, Erlang, and even in other scripting languages, such as Perl and Ruby.
Lua is powerful (but simple)
A fundamental concept in the design of Lua is to provide meta-mechanismsfor implementing features, instead of providing a host of features directly in the language. For example, although Lua is not a pure object-oriented language, it does provide meta-mechanisms for implementing classes and inheritance. Lua's meta-mechanisms bring an economy of concepts and keep the language small, while allowing the semantics to be extended in unconventional ways.
Lua is small
Adding Lua to an application does not bloat it. The You do not have permission to view the full content of this post. Log in or register now., which contains source code and documentation, takes 297K compressed and 1.2M uncompressed. The source contains around 24000 lines of C. Under 64-bit Linux, the Lua interpreter built with all standard Lua libraries takes 247K and the Lua library takes 421K.
Lua is free
Lua is free open-source software, distributed under a You do not have permission to view the full content of this post. Log in or register now.(the well-known MIT license). It may be used for any purpose, including commercial purposes, at absolutely no cost. Just You do not have permission to view the full content of this post. Log in or register now. it and use it.
credits to Lua.org