Introduction to Lua
Lua is a lightweight and compact scripting language, written in standard C language and open in source code form. It is designed to be embedded in applications to provide flexible extensions and customizations for applications.
Lua features
Lightweight:
It is written in standard C language and open in source code form. After compiling, it is only more than 100K, which can be easily embedded in other programs.
Extensible:
Lua provides a very easy-to-use extension interface and mechanism: these functions are provided by the host language (usually C or C++), and Lua can use them as if they were built-in functions.
Other features:
(1) Support procedural programming and functional programming;
(2) Automatic memory management; only provides a general type of table (table), which can be used to implement arrays, hash tables, sets, objects;
( 3) Language built-in pattern matching; closures; functions can also be regarded as a value; provide multi-threading (cooperative processes, not threads supported by the operating system) support;
(4) It is very convenient to use closures and tables Support some key mechanisms required for object-oriented programming, such as data abstraction, virtual functions, inheritance and overloading.
Lua application scenarios
(1) Game development
(2) Standalone application scripts
(3) Web application scripts
(4) Extensions and database plug-ins such as: MySQL Proxy and MySQL WorkBench
(5) Security systems such as intrusion detection systems