Lua Quick Start Guide

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.

Table of Contents

1. Introduction to LUA
2. Working with LUA
3. Tables and Objects
4. LUA Libraries
5. Debuging LUA
6. Embedding LUA
7. LUA Bridge
8. Next Steps

Gabor Szauer graduated from Full Sail University with a bachelor's degree in game development. He has been making video games professionally since 2010. He has worked on games for the Nintendo 3DS, Xbox 360, browser-based games, as well as games for iOS and Android. Gabor loves to teach, especially game development and programming. He has previously written the Game Physics Cookbook and is looking forward to producing much more content for those who want to learn