Authored by Roberto Ierusalimschy, the chief architect of the language, this volume covers all aspects of Lua 5---from the basics to its API with C---explaining how to make good use of its features and giving numerous code examples. (Computer Books)

The easiest way to learn Lua programming Key Features The easiest way to learn Lua coding Use the Lua standard libraries and debug Lua code Embed Lua as a scripting language using the Lua C API Book Description Lua is a small, powerful and extendable scripting/programming language that can be used for learning to program, and writing games and applications, or as an embedded scripting language. There are many popular commercial projects that allow you to modify or extend them through Lua scripting, and this book will get you ready for that. This book is the easiest way to learn Lua. It introduces you to the basics of Lua and helps you to understand the problems it solves. You will work with the basic language features, the libraries Lua provides, and powerful topics such as object-oriented programming. Every aspect of programming in Lua, variables, data types, functions, tables, arrays and objects, is covered in sufficient detail for you to get started. You will also find out about Lua's module system and how to interface with the operating system. After reading this book, you will be ready to use Lua as a programming language to write code that can interface with the operating system, automate tasks, make playable games, and much more. This book is a solid starting point for those who want to learn Lua in order to move onto other technologies such as Love2D or Roblox. A quick start guide is a focused, shorter title that provides a faster paced introduction to a technology. It is designed for people who don't need all the details at this point in their learning curve. This presentation has been streamlined to concentrate on the things you really need to know. What you will learn Understand the basics of programming the Lua language Understand how to use tables, the data structure that makes Lua so powerful Understand object-oriented programming in Lua using metatables Understand standard LUA libraries for math, file io, and more Manipulate string data using Lua Understand how to debug Lua applications quickly and effciently Understand how to embed Lua into applications with the Lua C API Who this book is for This book is for developers who want to get up and running with Lua. This book is ideal for programmers who want to learn to embed Lua in their own applications, as well as for beginner programmers who have never coded before.

This book is for students and professionals who are intrigued by the prospect of learning and using a powerful language that provides a rich infrastructure for creating programs. No programming knowledge is necessary to benefit from this book except for the section on Lua bindings, which requires some familiarity with the C programming language. A certain comfort level with command-line operations, text editing, and directory structures is assumed. You need surprisingly little in the way of computer resources to learn and use Lua. This book focuses on Windows and Unix-like (including Linux) systems, but any operating system that supports a command shell should be suitable. You'll need a text editor to prepare and save Lua scripts. If you choose to extend Lua with libraries written in a programming language like C, you'll need a suitable software development kit. Many of these kits are freely available on the Internet but, unlike Lua, they can consume prodigious amounts of disk space and memory.

This collection of articles record some of the existing wisdom and practice on how to program well in Lua. In well-written articles that go much beyond the brief informal exchange of tips in the mailing list or the wiki, the authors share their mastery of all aspects of Lua programming, elementary and advanced. The articles cover a wide spectrum of areas and approaches, with authors from both the industry and academia and titles about game programming, programming techniques, embedding and extending, algorithms and data structures, and design techniques.

If you are a game developer or a general programmer who wishes to focus on programming systems and techniques to build your game AI without creating low-level interfaces in a game engine, then this book is for you. Knowledge of C++ will come in handy to debug the entirety of the AI sandbox and expand on the features present within the book, but it is not required.