Lua Tutorials

Lua Tutorial

This tutorial is aimed at all newcomers to the language Lua

Tutorial Directory

This is a directory of lua tutorials at the main lua site. Many lua topics including libraries and advanced concepts are covered.

Lua Tutorials

There are three short Lua tutorials linked from this page.

Lua Tutorial

This is a simple tutorial on how to get Lua running, in the absence of proper documentation for the ScriptEngine module. This tutorial uses the ScriptEngine module for Lua work.

Lua Tools and Source

LuaEdit

LuaEdit is an IDE/Debugger/Script Editor designed for the version 5.0 of Lua. It features syntax highlighting, completion proposal list, parameter proposition engine, advance breakpoint management (including condition system on breakpoints and hit count), function listing, global and local variables listing, watches, project oriented management, etc.

Lua Source Code

Lua is distributed in source code at several sites. Lua is freely available and can be used for both academic and commercial purposes at absolutely no cost. All released versions are available for download.

LuaIDE

This is an integrated development environment for Lua on Windows.

LuaEclipse

LuaEclipse is a Lua IDE based on the Eclipse Platform. It is built as a plugin and extends Eclipse in several ways.

Exp Lua

ExpLua is both a code comment format and a tool for extracting said comments and exporting HTML, LaTeX, and whatnot. It is freely available for use under the same License as the Lua project, with the usual disclaimers.

Sample Code

This page contains links to pages with sample code which is organized into categories for the different versions of Lua.

Libraries and tools for Lua

A couple of tools and a number of lua libraries that are in the public domain.

ChunkBake

ChunkBake is a Lua 5 binary chunk assembler written entirely in Lua, with output customizable for different platforms.

Lua FAQ

Lua Faq

Lua Faq

Lua Faq

This document contains answers to some Frequently Asked Questions about Lua.

Lua Forums

Lua Forum

Lua Forum

Lua Books

Programming in Lua

This is an online version of the Lua book.

Lua Documentation

The is the official definition of the Lua language.

Lua 5 Quick Reference

A Lua 5 Quick Reference available in pdf and postscript formats.

A No-Frills Introduction to Lua 5.1 VM Instructions

A basic guide to all the instructions of the Lua 5.1 virtual machine (PDF)

Lua Articles

Lua Wiki Entry

Wikipedia article about Lua

Building Lua

Here are some notes on building Lua on various platforms, including links to useful build packages.

SPE paper

This paper describes Lua, a language for extending applications.

The Implementation of Lua 5.0

This paper discusses the main novelties of the implementation of Lua 5.0: its registerbased virtual machine, the new algorithm for optimizing tables used as arrays, the implementation of closures, and the addition of coroutines.

The Evolution of Lua

Lua article.

Papers and theses

This is an incomplete list of academic publications related to Lua maintained at the official Lua site.

Introducing Lua

Introductory Lua article.

The Evolution of an Extension Language: A History of Lua

This paper describes the trajectory of Lua, from its creation as an in-house language for two specific projects, until Lua 4.0, released in November 2000. It discusses the evolution of some of its concepts and the main landmarks in its implementation

Lua Versus Python

Lua article.

Lua Versus Ruby

Lua article.

Lua: an Extensible Embedded Language

Reprint from Dr. Dobb's Journal 21 #12 (Dec 1996) 26-33.

Lua Versus Unreal Script

Lua article.

Embedding a scripting language inside your C/C++ code

Lua article with code examples.

Lua Paper

Reprint from Proceedings of XXI Brazilian Seminar on Software and Hardware.

An Introduction to Lua

This article is a short tutorial on Lua.

Extending Lua: Making your own libraries

Lua article.

Embedding Lua in C: Using Lua from inside C

Lua article.