Lua (programming language)
Lua (/ˈluːə/ LOO-ə; from Portuguese: lua [ˈlu(w)ɐ] meaning moon) is a lightweight, high-level, multi-paradigm programming language designed primarily for embedded use in applications. Lua is cross-platform, since the interpreter of compiled bytecode is written in ANSI C, and Lua has a relatively simple C API to embed it into applications.
| Paradigm | Multi-paradigm: scripting, imperative (procedural, prototype-based, object-oriented), functional, meta, reflective |
|---|---|
| Designed by | Roberto Ierusalimschy Waldemar Celes Luiz Henrique de Figueiredo |
| First appeared | 1993 |
| Stable release | |
| Typing discipline | Dynamic, weak, duck |
| Implementation language | ANSI C |
| OS | Cross-platform |
| License | MIT License |
| Filename extensions | .lua |
| Website | www |
| Major implementations | |
| Lua, LuaJIT, LuaVela, MoonSharp, Luvit, LuaRT, Luau | |
| Dialects | |
| Metalua, Idle, GSL Shell | |
| Influenced by | |
| C++, CLU, Modula, Scheme, SNOBOL | |
| Influenced | |
| GameMonkey, Io, JavaScript, Julia, MiniD, Red, Ring, Ruby, Squirrel, MoonScript, C-- | |
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.