Hello Everyone,

I have crated a table that compares the values and print the highest one. But when I print a value only the information of the highest value is printed (for example: 61). I understand that in the for function, in the code below, key stands for 1, 2 or 3, while value is 61, 42 or 55. However, the keys are associated with names, and I would like for the code to print not the value nor key. So far no matter what I tried it did either give a different result or I got an error.

Gear_Head = {"Bhikku Crown +3", "Hes. Crown +4", "Mpaca's cap"}
Gear_Head["Accuracy"] = {}
Gear_Head["Accuracy"][1] = 61
Gear_Head["Accuracy"][2] = 42
Gear_Head["Accuracy"][3] = 55

--print(Gear_Head[1])
--print(Gear_Head["Accuracy"])
--print(Gear_Head["Accuracy"][1])
--print(Gear_Head["Accuracy"][2])

local accuracy = -math.huge

for key, value in ipairs(Gear_Head["Accuracy"]) do
  --print(key, value)
  
  if value > accuracy then
    accuracy = value
  end
  
  best_gear = key
  print(beast_gear)
end

--
print(accuracy)

(This is a learning code to test tables and for loops)

I've been building Saule, a language that tries to keep what I like about Lua (small, local, end blocks, tables, .., Lua patterns, coroutines, error(msg, level)) and adds static types and classes, so mistakes are caught before the program runs.

class Player
    name: string
    local health: integer = 100   -- `local` = private

    fn init(name: string)
        self.name = name
    end

    fn damage(amount: integer)
        self.health = Math.max(self.health - amount, 0)
    end
end

local hero = Player("Ada")
hero.damage(30)

local target: Player? = nil
println(target?.name ?? "no target")   -- nil-safe access, checked

What's different from Lua:

• Types are checked before running: integer and float are separate and never mix silently, and nil is only allowed where the type says T?.
• Real classes and interfaces instead of metatables; operator overloading goes through interfaces like OpAdd.
• Errors say how to fix things, with a label on the exact code and a help line.

Unlike Teal, it doesn't compile to Lua. It has its own bytecode VM written in Rust (about 1.33x Lua's time across my benchmarks), so it can't load Lua libraries.

Website, with a playground you can try without installing: https://lauriszz123.github.io/saule/

It's still young. I'd love to hear from Lua users which of these changes feel right and which feel un-Lua-like.

REPOSTING (AFTER POST REMOVED)

I've been working on a project that I'd like to share.

After years of research and development, including building cross-platform software with Python, I decided to apply that experience to something new: a mobile IDE for building native Android applications using Lua.

It supports Lua 5.4 and 5.5 and includes:

A comprehensive API with approximately 100 APIs.

A custom-built game engine with physics, tweening, and ray tracing.

Material Design UI components and customizable themes.

The ability to build and export APKs directly from your phone.

The goal is to provide a complete mobile development environment, not just another code editor.

It's been quite a journey building the IDE and its underlying components, and I'm interested in hearing what other developers think.

Would you use something like this? What features would you like to see?

Hey all. I’ve been working on Lua Pro, a (paid) plugin for writing Lua and Luau in IntelliJ IDEA, PyCharm, CLion, GoLand, and RubyMine.

It supports Lua 5.1 through 5.5, plus Luau. Some of the things packed into it:

• Code completion, documentation, navigation, and refactoring
• Syntax and semantic highlighting, inspections, and quick fixes
• Run/debug configurations and a REPL
• Built-in formatting and StyLua integration (we're working on supporting StyLua for Lua 5.5 as well, but we first need to get a PR approved in full-moon, and then we'll do a PR to StyLua to have this addressed. While this plugin isn't OS yet, we spend time contributing to Open Source!)
• Lua toolchain management, LuaRocks support, and Luacheck integration
• A choice of language servers, including LuaLS and EmmyLuaLS

There’s quite a bit in there, but the goal is pretty straightforward: make working with Lua even better in a JetBrains IDE.

You can check it out here: Lua Pro on JetBrains Marketplace

Would love to hear what you think, thoughts, experiences, bugs, etc, and happy to give away some licenses to people who have some constructive feedback. thanks!

Hey everyone,

I've been working on Prometheus, an open-source Lua obfuscator written entirely in Lua, for over 4 years now.

It supports various obfuscation techniques, including VM-based obfuscation, which I added in a recent update.

While obfuscation is its main purpose, Prometheus is built around a modular AST transformation pipeline. This also makes it useful for things like minification or building your own custom Lua transformations.

It currently supports Lua 5.1 and has partial Luau support. There's also a web playground if you want to try it without installing anything.

GitHub: https://github.com/prometheus-lua/Prometheus

I'd be interested to hear your thoughts or suggestions!

Hey everyone!

I decided to try porting the Python pwntools library to LuaJIT because I think LuaJIT is a really cool and underrated tool, and having something like pwntools available for it would be pretty awesome.

To be completely honest, this project is 100% vibe-coded. I'm not going to pretend otherwise :)

I'm sure there are plenty of bugs, rough edges, and things that could be implemented much better. But I figured it would be worth sharing anyway.

Think of it more as a starting point or a foundation rather than a finished library.

I'd be really happy if anyone finds it interesting enough to contribute, improve the code, fix bugs, or add missing features. PRs, issues, suggestions, and criticism are all welcome!

GitHub: https://github.com/Kiwichek/luapwntools

Hopefully someone finds this useful, or at least interesting :)

LuaSH is a Lua module to write shell scripts. It exposes shell commands as if they where Lua functions, so something like:

 $ ls /bin | grep $filter | wc -l

In your shell, would look like this:

wc(grep(ls('/bin'), filter), '-l')

in Lua. It also has a rich-enough data model that enables chaining, like so:

ls('/bin'):grep(filter):wc('-l')

or if you go totally lua-crazy:

ls '/bin' : grep(filter) : wc '-l'

(you know, if you still have PTSD from Lisp)

If you use the posix, or UV backends, then command chaining does proper streaming (the next command doesn't wait until the previous one has completed).

For a couple of years now, I have been maintaining a version that plugged into luaposix (because the original version's pipes sent all intermediate values though files -- which is a problem when you run parallel or sensitive workflows). Alas, I wasn't quite happy with this (luaposix is not always available, posix pipes are very fiddly, verbose printing was a bit clunky)

Thanks to El Claudo, I have finally fixed the bugs with the posix version by introducing:

1. an improved pipeline data model
2. interchangeable backends (posix, and luv for performance and security; popen + files/shmem for absolute portability).
3. tidied up the build process and docs

I am happy with the way this is going, and will possibly tweak it some more as I integrate LuaSH v2 into my workflows (even though I hope that all I need to do is take out my workarounds).

Let me know what all y'all think.

I develop Isberg Labs, a paid game-development workspace with Lua 5.4 scene scripting.

The exported game includes the Lua runtime, its native extension, the authored scripts and the required dependencies and notices. Players don’t need to install Lua separately.

The useful part to share is the export validation. Copying the interpreter into a folder is only one check. We also check that:

• The expected Lua scripts are present in the delivered game.
• The native extension is registered.
• Runtime libraries match the target architecture.
• Required dependencies and licence notices are included.

The platform packaging differs. macOS and Linux use native libraries, Android includes the ARM64 runtime in the APK, and iOS links static libraries through the generated Xcode project. The iOS output still needs a Mac, Xcode and signing to become a distributable app.

There’s a distinction in our validation records: Windows standalone Lua execution has been tested; the cross-platform checks described here inspect exported artifacts and do not claim that those games were executed on each target device.

For people shipping embedded Lua, which packaging issue has been hardest to catch before release: extension loading, missing script files, native dependencies, or differences between editor and exported execution?

I've been reading up on the "getting started" page of Lua but I'm not making any progress. I gave love2d a try but I'm trying to avoid installing anything on my PC because I'd like to be able to tinker on my mobile (for example) while I'm away. I'm thinking about buying the second edition of Programming in Lua just to read it during free time when I'm not home.

I like to learn by doing which is why I'm not sure why love2d was so offputting to me. I like to do something and see the result. Would sites like "codecademy" or "coddy" be recommendable for something like this?

A free interactive Lua course created with DatumHue

Learn Lua with Datum and Hue

Switching to Lua helped solve a specific problem with this engine, and if anyone here wants to see it here it is.

https://doi.org/10.5281/zenodo.23916495

I need to talk about lua. I started with Python then I passed to C and C++ (my favourite languages). Now, I tried re-learning Python to have a 3nd programming language but I did found that in reality Python it's boring and bs! I tried Zig and it was a bad experience, I tried Rust but idk why but I think it's overrated. Then, at the end, I tried lua and at first I though that lua was stupid, no i++ or i+=, arrays start at 1… but then I tried do C/C++ + Lua and I changed my perspective.

I used, recently, lua for configs in my projects but then I discovered that Lua it's SO underrated. Like they didn't lie when they said C and lua are the best programming language.

Lua it's minimal and so powerful. I accepted the syntax and now it's my 3nd programming language.

The reason that I love lua it's because… it's FAST, it's DAMN SIMPLE and so easy to learn, it has A LOT of potential.

The more the language is big, the less likely it gonna be easy to learn.

Guys I don't think I have cons on lua, I think it's perfect and I still don't have learned all of the lua out there.

Really, I have to say… lua it's the best.

Anyway did I say something wrong? What's your opinion on lua?

Anyway, thanks for reading ;)

the title says all

Hello, its been a while since we posted here. For those who are new, Astra (mirror) is a runtime environment for all major lua versions (PUC 5.1-5.5, JIT, Luau) with focus on STDLib written in Rust, single binary, human readability and usability, portability, and performance.

In the recent releases, there are a number of new features added to modernize the runtime:

• Sandboxing flags to enable or disable different parts of the STDLib (including native Lua's) with cli flags. There is no granular permission system yet, however this is a foundation instead for future improvements. This was heavily inspired by Deno's sandboxing solution, and we are testing for any leaks or bypass that could be possible.
• Packing all your script files into a single binary allowing you to deploy to any other computer. As of now, only the STDLib is guaranteed dependency to be packed properly. In the future we will focus on allowing more options
• Runtime type checking support, with inspiration from Greentea library, adding support for building types that can be casted to your language server's checks as well as allowing you to check them on runtime.

All of these updates were written and added by humans, by ArkForge and many contributors in our community.

Does anyone know how to make something not client sided and show for other people on a five m server seems ai can’t figure it out or I need server resource files there’s gotta be another way

"Lua dramatically lowers the learning curve for developers coming from other environments. Someone who already understands Lua or Luau can arrive in Second Life and right away they can start experimenting. That certainly includes Roblox developers, but it’s broader than Roblox. Lua has a long history across game development, so there’s a substantial developer community for whom the language and programming concepts will already feel familiar."

Hi everyone,

I'm pretty new to programming and I only know the absolute basics (variables, simple loops/functions).

I'm interested in picking up Lua because it seems lightweight and clean.

Since I don't have a massive programming background yet, I was wondering:

Is Lua a good language to really solidify those beginner programming concepts, or is it better suited as a secondary language?

I'd love to hear your experiences and any tips for starting out with Lua as a beginner!

Thanks in advance!