Beginning Lua Programming

Chapter 18. Carrying Lua with You

Lua's efficiency and small size make it highly suitable for use with the scaled-down resources of a handheld device. This chapter introduces the use of Lua in devices that function with Palm OS, such as PDAs (personal digital assistants) and mobile telephones. The focus will be on Plua, a port of Lua with a very nicely engineered binding to the Palm OS application programming interface. In this chapter, you learn how to do the following:

• Obtain and set up Plua on your Palm OS device

• Obtain and set up tools to develop Plua applications from your desktop

• Save your source code in various formats

• Develop Lua modules

• Generate artwork programmatically using turtle graphics

• Create programs with forms

The flexibility of the Plua package enables you to develop Lua applications right on your Palm device. Alternatively, with the freely available Palm OS Emulator or Simulator, you can build and test your Lua application from your desktop.

Getting Started with Plua

Plua was created by Márcio Migueletto de Andrade and is maintained and copyrighted by him. Currently, version 1.1 and the most recent beta release of version 2.0 are available. The earlier version was a port of Lua version 4.0, and the later version is a port of Lua 5.0. It is the later version, often referred to as Plua2, that's covered here. It is referred to as Plua in this chapter, unless it needs to be distinguished from its predecessor. Because you've been using Lua 5.1 in this book, review the differences ...