Introduction to Lua
A tiny, fast, embeddable scripting language.
What Lua is, why it matters, and how to navigate this track.
Lua is a tiny, blazing-fast scripting language designed to be embedded inside other programs.
What is Lua?
Lua is a lightweight, dynamically-typed language with a famously small runtime.
It is the scripting layer inside games, Redis, Nginx, and countless applications.
Your first example
Here is Lua saying hello. Read it top to bottom — every line earns its place.
print("Hello, world!")Hello, world!
Why learn Lua?
- Minuscule footprint and very fast.
- The most common embedded scripting language in games.
- Simple, clean syntax you can learn in an afternoon.
Where it is used
- Game scripting
- Embedded config (Redis, Nginx)
- Plugins & mods
- Lightweight automation
How this track works
Every topic here has four views, switchable with the tabs at the top of each page:
- Learn — the clear, practical walkthrough you are reading now.
- Deep — every detail: edge cases, the full API, and what is really happening.
- Reference — a scannable, no-fluff lookup for when you already know the shape.
- Cheatsheet — the one-page summary, printable, for quick recall.
More like this
HTML Headings
h1 through h6 are the page’s table of contents. Use them for structure, never for size — that’s what CSS is for.
HTML Headings
h1–h6 are instances of HTMLHeadingElement. They take no special attributes — only the global set and ARIA — but there’s real depth in how they form the document outline and what you can do with them from JavaScript.
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