[Lua | http://www.lua.org] is a lightweight ProgrammingLanguage designed for extending applications, but also frequently used as a stand-alone language. It is implemented as a small library of [ANSI] [C] functions that compiles unmodified on all known platforms. The [API] that allows an application to exchange data with [Lua] programs and also to extend Lua with [C] functions. In this sense, [Lua] can be regarded as a language framework for building domain-specific languages. [Lua] programs are compiled to ByteCode. [Lua]'s implementation goals are simplicity, efficiency, portability, and low embedding cost. The result is a fast language engine with small footprint, making it ideal in embedded systems too. It is FreeSoftware, designed and implemented by a team at Tecgraf, the Computer Graphics Technology Group of PUC-Rio (the Pontifical Catholic University of Rio de Janeiro in Brazil). Tecgraf is a laboratory of theDepartment of ComputerScience. 

  

 The language combines simple procedural syntax with powerful data description constructs based on associative arrays, is dynamically typed, and has automatic memory management with GarbageCollection, making it ideal for configuration, scripting, and rapid prototyping. A fundamental concept in the design of [Lua] is to provide meta-mechanisms for implementing features, instead of providing a host of features directly in the language. For example, although [Lua] does not contain ObjectOrientation, it does provide mechanisms for implementing classes and inheritance. This philosophy brings an economy of concepts and keeps the language small, while allowing unconventional extensions to its semantics. 

  

  

 See also: 

 * [The Lua-Users wiki | http://lua-users.org/wiki] 

 * <tt>#lua</tt> on the [FreeNode] [IRC] network