Considering picking up Lua
Posted: Wed Apr 06, 2011 1:53 pm
I'm almost completely inexperienced with programming, so there might be stupid questions incoming.
Why do I almost exclusively see Lua referred to as a scripting language instead of a programming language? I know it can be embedded quite easily in other applications, but how good is it for writing applications alone? It seems to me that people only consider it for small pieces of embedded code.
What limitations does Lua have? Is there anything I can't do with it that I can do with other languages? I want to learn it, but it feels like my time will be better spent with another language if I'm going to realize in 6 months that I can't do something with Lua that I want to do.
I've messed around a bit with it, and the syntax seems really simple, easier to learn than Python. I'd like to keep going, but I want to make sure that I wouldn't be getting more out of going with another language instead.
Why do I almost exclusively see Lua referred to as a scripting language instead of a programming language? I know it can be embedded quite easily in other applications, but how good is it for writing applications alone? It seems to me that people only consider it for small pieces of embedded code.
What limitations does Lua have? Is there anything I can't do with it that I can do with other languages? I want to learn it, but it feels like my time will be better spent with another language if I'm going to realize in 6 months that I can't do something with Lua that I want to do.
I've messed around a bit with it, and the syntax seems really simple, easier to learn than Python. I'd like to keep going, but I want to make sure that I wouldn't be getting more out of going with another language instead.