Beginning Lua Programming

Introduction

Perhaps you need one or more of these things:

• A way to present dynamic information, both textual and graphical, on your website

• A means to transfer legacy data to a modern database

• Nonprogrammers or end users to augment your application with additional functionality

• A custom program for your handheld device that you can use in the field

• Scripts to drive the user interface and business logic of an enterprise-level application

• An engine to run gaming scripts

• An interface language for scientific instrumentation

• A scripted way to monitor the health of a computer network

• A robust mechanism to allow end users to set application options in an easy-to-understand configuration file

If so, you'll find this versatile and fast programming language called Lua to be the perfect tool. Lua has a gentle learning curve that will enable you to write effective programs after only a short introduction. With it, simple programs look simple—there is no extraneous baggage you need to add to your programs or peculiar syntax to which you need to conform to make them run. From the examples in the preceding list, you can see that Lua is quite appropriate for use by technically adept individuals who aren't necessarily programmers.

At the other end of the continuum, Lua has features that support advanced program requirements. It imposes very few conventions on the way you write your programs, instead providing mechanisms with which you can construct clear and maintainable solutions to your programming tasks. ...