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The official definition of the Lua language is its
reference manual,
which describes the syntax and the semantics of Lua,
the standard libraries, and the C API.
The
reference manual for Lua 5.3
is available online
in English only.
The
reference manual for Lua 5.2
is available online
in English
and in Portuguese.
The
reference manual for Lua 5.1
is available online
in English
and has been translated into
Portuguese,
Spanish,
Russian,
and
German.
It is also available as a book in English.
Technical documentation
For more technical information,
see the Frequently Asked Questions (FAQ)
and some old
seminar slides.
For detailed technical information on specific topics,
see our old series of
Lua Technical Notes
and the
wiki
at
lua-users.org,
specially the
tutorial.
You may also browse the
source code.
There are many
papers and theses
related to Lua.
Here are the main ones written by the Lua
team.
See also the
LabLua publications.
The main academic paper about Lua
discusses the philosophy behind its design:
Lua – an extensible extension language
by R. Ierusalimschy, L. H. de Figueiredo, W. Celes,
Software: Practice & Experience 26 #6 (1996) 635–652.
[doi]
This paper was awarded the
first prize (technological category)
in the
II Compaq Award for Research and Development in Computer Science in 1997.
This award was a joint venture of
Compaq Computer in Brazil,
the
Brazilian Ministry of Science and Technology,
and the
Brazilian Academy of Sciences.
For a recent short exposition of the API design, see
Passing a language through the eye of a needle
by R. Ierusalimschy, L. H. de Figueiredo, W. Celes,
ACM Queue 9 #5 (May 2011) 20–29.
[doi]
For details on the implementation of Lua, see
The implementation of Lua 5.0
by R. Ierusalimschy, L. H. de Figueiredo, W. Celes,
Journal of Universal Computer Science 11 #7 (2005) 1159–1176.
[jucs
·
slides]
For a complete history of Lua till 2006, see
The evolution of Lua
by R. Ierusalimschy, L. H. de Figueiredo, W. Celes,
Proceedings of
ACM HOPL III (2007) 2-1–2-26.
[doi
·
slides]
For a history of Lua till 2001, see
The evolution of an extension language:
a history of Lua
by R. Ierusalimschy, L. H. de Figueiredo, W. Celes,
Proceedings of V Brazilian Symposium on Programming Languages
(2001) B-14–B-28.
[ps]
The first paper describing Lua has some historical interest:
The design and implementation of a language for extending applications
by L. H. de Figueiredo, R. Ierusalimschy, W. Celes,
Proceedings of XXI Brazilian Seminar on Software and Hardware (1994) 273–283.
[ps]
For an early expository article, see
Lua: an extensible embedded language
by L. H. de Figueiredo, R. Ierusalimschy, W. Celes,
Dr. Dobb's Journal 21 #12 (Dec 1996) 26–33.
[ddj]
For a recent introductory text (in Portuguese), see
Uma introdu��o � programa��o em Lua
by R. Ierusalimschy,
JAI 2009 (Jul 2009).
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Lua books are available at the main online stores,
such as the
Lua Bookstore at Amazon,
or as e-books at
Feisty Duck.
When you buy a copy of a book published by Lua.org,
you help to support the Lua project.
The official definition of the Lua language:
Lua 5.1 Reference Manual
by R. Ierusalimschy, L. H. de Figueiredo, W. Celes,
Lua.org, August 2006
ISBN 8590379833
The reference manuals for later versions of Lua are available
online.
A detailed and authoritative introduction to
all aspects of Lua programming,
by Lua's chief architect:
Programming in Lua
by R. Ierusalimschy
Lua.org, fourth edition, August 2016
ISBN 8590379868
The fourth edition is aimed at Lua 5.3
and marks a complete reorganization of the text.
The first edition is
available online.
It was aimed at Lua 5.0 and is still largely relevant.
The third edition was aimed at Lua 5.2 and remains quite relevant.
It is available in
English,
Portuguese,
and Russian:
Programming in Lua
by Roberto Ierusalimschy
Lua.org, third edition, January 2013
ISBN 859037985X
(also available as
e-book)
Programando em Lua
por Roberto Ierusalimschy
LTC, January 2015
ISBN 9788521626992
Programmirovanie na iazyke Lua
by Roberto Ierusalimschy
DMK-press, 2014
ISBN 5940747671
The second edition remains relevant and is available in
German,
Korean,
Chinese,
and Japanese:
Programmieren mit Lua
von Roberto Ierusalimschy
Open Source Press, September 2006
ISBN 3937514228
Programming in Lua
by Roberto Ierusalimschy
Insight, June 2007
ISBN 9788991268302
Programming in Lua
by Roberto Ierusalimschy
Publishing House of Electronic Industry, May 2008
ISBN 9787121061875
Programming in Lua
by Roberto Ierusalimschy
ASCII Media Works, Aug 2009
ISBN 9784048677974
A collection of articles recording some of the existing wisdom and practice on how to program well in Lua:
Lua Programming Gems
edited by L. H. de Figueiredo, W. Celes, R. Ierusalimschy,
Lua.org, December 2008
ISBN 9788590379843
(also available as
e-book)
There are also books about Lua written by other authors:
- Le guide de Lua et ses applications - Manuel d'apprentissage (2e �dition)
by Pierre Chapuis, Etiene Dalcol, Cyril Doillon, Sylvain Fabre, Philippe Lhoste, Hisham Muhammad, and Patrick Rapin.
�ditions D-BookeR, 2016, ISBN 9782822704076.
- Le guide de Lua et ses applications - Manuel de r�f�rence (2e �dition)
by Pierre Chapuis, Cyril Doillon, Sylvain Fabre, Philippe Lhoste, and Patrick Rapin.
�ditions D-BookeR, 2016, ISBN 9782822704083.
- Lua Game Development Cookbook
by Mario Kasuba.
Packt Publishing, 2015, ISBN 1849515506.
- Learning Game AI Programming with Lua
by David Young.
Packt Publishing, 2014, ISBN 1783281332.
- Lua Programming
by Mark Otaris and others, Wikibooks, 2014.
- Introduction to Programming with Lua and the Corona Game Lab
by Robert Cook.
Cook's Books, 2014.
ASIN B00IQGAC8A.
- CryENGINE Game Programming with C++, C#, and Lua
by Filip Lundgren and Ruan Pearce.
Packt Publishing, 2013, ISBN 1849695903.
- L�VE for Lua Game Programming
by Darmie Akinlaja.
Packt Publishing, 2013, ISBN 1782161600.
- ComputerCraft: Lua Programming in Minecraft
by Matthew Monk and Simon Monk.
CreateSpace, 2013, ISBN 1481927655.
- Learn Lua for iOS Game Development
by Jayant Varma.
Apress, 2012, ISBN 1430246626.
- Le guide de Lua et ses applications
by Cyril Doillon, Sylvain Fabre, Philippe Lhoste, and Patrick Rapin.
�ditions D-BookeR, 2012, ISBN 9782822700054.
- Lua - Programa��o de Computadores
by Jos� Augusto N. G. Manzano.
self-published, 2012, ISBN 9788591311576.
- Lua: Einsatz von Lua in Embedded Systems
by Claus K�hnel and Daniel Zwirner.
Skript Verlag Kuehnel, June 2012, ISBN 3907857151.
- Basic ROBLOX Lua Programming
by Brandon John LaRouche.
CreateSpace, April 2012, ISBN 1475026048.
- Numerical Methods for Nonlinear Engineering Models
by John R. Hauser.
Springer, 2009, ISBN 9781402099199.
- Lua: Einsatz von Lua zur Messwerterfassung
by Claus K�hnel and Daniel Zwirner.
Skript Verlag Kuehnel, September 2009, ISBN 3907857127.
- Beginning Lua with World of Warcraft Add-ons
by Paul Emmerich.
Apress, July 2009, ISBN 1430223715.
- First Lua Programming, the most popular application development lightweight script!
by Miki Shimizu.
Softbank Creative, December 2008, ISBN 4777514137.
- Scripting Language for Game Development and Efficient C/C++ to Implement Embedded Lua
by Makoto Hamanaka.
Softbank Creative, September 2008, ISBN 4797348550.
- World of Warcraft Programming
by James Whitehead II, Bryan McLemore, and Matthew Orlando.
Wiley, May 2008, ISBN 0470229810.
- Introduction to Lua programming
by Yutaka Ueno.
Softbank Creative, December 2007, ISBN 4797342722.
- Beginning Lua Programming
by Kurt Jung and Aaron Brown.
Wrox, February 2007, ISBN 0470069171.
- Game Development with Lua
by Paul Schuytema and Mark Manyen.
Charles River Media, August 2005, ISBN 1584504048.
- Game Programming with Python, Lua, and Ruby
by Tom Gutschmidt.
Course Technology PTR, December 2003, ISBN 1592000770.
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Documentation