What is Lua?

Lua is a lightweight, high-level, multi-paradigm programming language designed primarily for embedded use in applications. It was created in 1993 by a team at the Pontifical Catholic University of Rio de Janeiro in Brazil.

• Lightweight: Lua has a small memory footprint, making it perfect for embedded systems, game engines, and mobile apps.
• Embeddable: Lua is often used as a scripting language embedded into larger host applications, like games or software tools.
• Simple Syntax: Lua’s syntax is clean and minimalistic, making it easy to learn and ideal for beginners.
• Powerful: Despite its simplicity, Lua supports first-class functions, closures, metatables, coroutines, and more.

Popular use cases include:

• Game development (used in Roblox, World of Warcraft, Angry Birds)
• Embedded systems (TV firmware, routers)
• Configuration scripting (Adobe Lightroom, Nginx)