Lua (programming language)

Lua (/ˈluːə/ LOO-ə; from Portuguese: lua [ˈlu(w)ɐ] meaning moon) is a lightweight, high-level, multi-paradigm programming language designed primarily for embedded use in applications.[3] Lua is cross-platform, since the interpreter of compiled bytecode is written in ANSI C,[4] and Lua has a relatively simple C API to embed it into applications.[5]

Quick facts: Paradigm, Designed by, First appear... ▼

Lua

Screenshot of Lua code from a Wikipedia Lua module using the MediaWiki Scribunto extension
Paradigm	Multi-paradigm: scripting, imperative (procedural, prototype-based, object-oriented), functional, meta, reflective
Designed by	Roberto Ierusalimschy Waldemar Celes Luiz Henrique de Figueiredo
First appeared	1993; 30 years ago (1993)
Stable release	5.4.6[1]  / 14 May 2023; 6 months ago (14 May 2023)
Typing discipline	Dynamic, weak, duck
Implementation language	ANSI C
OS	Cross-platform
License	MIT License
Filename extensions	.lua
Website	www.lua.org
Major implementations
Lua, LuaJIT, LuaVela, MoonSharp, Luvit, LuaRT, Luau
Dialects
Metalua, Idle, GSL Shell
Influenced by
C++, CLU, Modula, Scheme, SNOBOL
Influenced
GameMonkey, Io, JavaScript[citation needed], Julia, MiniD, Red, Ring,[2] Ruby,[citation needed] Squirrel, MoonScript, C--

Lua originated in 1993 as a language for extending software applications to meet the increasing demand for customization at the time. It provided the basic facilities of most procedural programming languages, but more complicated or domain-specific features were not included; rather, it included mechanisms for extending the language, allowing programmers to implement such features. As Lua was intended to be a general embeddable extension language, the designers of Lua focused on improving its speed, portability, extensibility, and ease-of-use in development.