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This page is a top level directory of all Lua content at this wiki, grouped by topic.

Introduction to Lua
- LearningLua - introduction to Lua (a guided directory)
- LuaTutorial - an informative tutorial written and reviewed by Lua users
- SampleCode - snippets of useful Lua code
- LuaComparison - how Lua compares with other languages.
- LuaFaq - unofficial, community-maintained frequently asked questions
- LuaLinks - a hand-edited list of useful Lua links
- LuaBooks - list of books on the subject of Lua
Language Definition and Features
- LuaShortReference - concise summary of the Lua 5.1 syntax and core libraries
- LuaReferenceManualComments - user comments and annotations on the Lua Reference Manual.
- LuaSymbols? - the purpose of symbol characters within Lua code
- LuaVirtualization - which operations can/cannot be hooked
- Lua changes - LuaFiveThree (5.3), LuaFiveTwo (5.2), MigratingToFiveOne (5.1), LuaFiveFeatures (5.0), LuaVersionCompatibility (portability across versions)
- HiddenFeatures - describes unsupported and undocumented features of the standard Lua distribution
- LuaScoping - on variable scope and upvalues
- LuaTrivia - test your Lua knowledge
- ZenOfLua - grok it
- GarbageCollection - info on Lua's garbage collection
- FloatingPoint - explains why double floating point is perfectly fine for most integer applications
- LightUserData - explains the purpose and use of lightuserdata
- SimpleCommandLineScriptExecution - execute a script
- StringIndexing - supporting index and slice operators on strings
- MechanismNotPolicy - comments on Lua's "mechanism not policy" design principle
Code Structure / Programming Paradigms
- LocalsVsGlobals - Comparison between local and global variables
- Control structures / structured programming
  - SwitchStatement - emulating a C-style switch statement in Lua (design pattern)
  - GotoStatement - goto statement
  - WithStatement - implementing a "with" structure (like in JavaScript?? etc.)
  - ContinueProposal - continue statement
  - TernaryOperator - conditional expression
- Module Programming
  - ModuleDefinition - approaches to define modules
  - See also "Modules/Libraries" below
- ObjectOrientedProgramming - object oriented programming techniques in Lua
  - CustomOperators - approaches to using custom operators
  - PointAndComplex - comments on operator overloading in Lua
- AspectOrientedProgramming - coding with pointcuts [1] and advices [2] in Lua
- Declarative and Functional Programming
  - NamedParameters - implementing named parameters in Lua
  - FiltersSourcesAndSinks - discusses chaining of filters, which are functions that accept successive chunks of input, and produce successive chunks of output
  - FiltersAndPipesReloaded - presents a coroutines based framework for working with filters and pipes
  - CurriedLua - currying functions in Lua
  - GenericInputAlgorithms - functional, AWK-style text processing in Lua
  - FunctionalLibrary - porting several convenient functional utilities form Haskell, Python, etc.
  - ShortAnonymousFunctions - expressing anonymous functions more tersely than function() return ... end
  - FunctionalTuples - implementing tuples in terms functions (design pattern and tutorial)
  - MutableFunctions - using functions to simulate the semantics of tables (design pattern)
  - RecursiveDataTypes - handling recursive data types (design pattern and tutorial)
  - ListComprehensions - list comprehension implementations
  - RandomSample - lazy tables, a simple illustration of lazy evaluation (design pattern)
  - FuncTables - memoization of functions using callable tables (design pattern, code, and tutorial)
  - HammingNumbersVariant - enumerate hamming numbers, with lazy list (function)
  - ImmutableObjects - topics of immutability/const-ness in Lua
  - StructuralPatternMatching - pattern matching, ML style.
- Concurrent and Event-driven Programming
  - MultiTasking - multitasking/multithreading approaches in Lua
  - FiniteStateMachine - finite state machine (FSMs) (design pattern)
  - Coroutines
    - CopasExample - TCP socket server utilizing Copas library (examples)
    - CoroutinesAsConnectionHandlers - scaffolding for handling multiple sockets using coroutines (design pattern)
    - CoroutinesAsEventHandlers - scaffolding for handling event responders (design pattern)
    - FunWithCoroutines - tricks using coroutines: reverse string and control inversion (design patterns)
    - PcallAndCoroutines - issues with pcall and coroutines
- Source Processing / Metaprogramming
  - MetaProgramming - macros, token filters, facilities for syntax extensions, and source processors
  - LuaGrammar - Lua grammar, lexers, and parsers
  - SourcePreprocessing - tricks to preprocess source code.
  - LuaTokenParsing - altering Lua by fiddling with the token stream
  - MetaLua - alternative Lua compiler with compile-time metaprogramming and syntax extensions
  - MetaLuaAbstractSyntaxTree - The syntax tree produced by Metalua and consumed by various utilities
- ErrorHandling - topics on error and exception handling
  - ResourceAcquisitionIsInitialization - automatically releasing acquired resources on scope exit, RAII
- BitwiseOperators - bitwise operations
- StructurePacking - pack/unpack C structure data
- FileSystemOperations - file system operations
- DatabaseAccess - database programming
- DateAndTime - date and time handling
- StringInterpolation - approaches to interpolating variables in strings
- CommandLineParsing - command-line parsing
- TypeIntrospection - determining types of objects at runtime
- UniversallyUniqueIdentifiers - various ways to created universally unique identifiers (UUID's) in Lua
- PlatformDetection - detect OS platform type from Lua
- ArtificialIntelligence - AI in Lua
- LuaDataFormats - using Lua as a data representation language
- LuaDesignPatterns - additional design patterns in Lua
- LuaHacks - unconventional approaches to problems in Lua
Data Structures/Types - see DataStructures
Algorithms / Data Manipulation
- CopyTable - return deep copy of table
- Ordering Iterators
  - OrderedTable - iterate over tables in the order of key insertion (function and design pattern)
  - OrderedTableSimple - iterate over tables in the order of key insertion (function and design pattern)
  - OrderedAssociativeTable - iterate over a table using a sorted index (function and design pattern)
  - RangeIterator - a 'range' iterator function that acts like basic for loops (function)
  - SortedIteration - iterating a table in order by keys (function)
  - SortedIterationSimple - iterating a table in order by keys (function)
  - GeneralizedPairsAndIpairs - next, pairs, and ipairs reimplemented to call metamethods (design pattern and functions)
  - NextMetamethodForIndexTable - next()-like function for iterating table against table __index (function and design pattern)
- Indexing
  - MultipleKeyIndexing - indexing with multiple keys
- Sorting
  - LazySort - sort only as much of a table as is necessary (function and tutorial)
  - LuaSorting - a sample shellsort implementation in pure Lua (function)
- Search in sorted arrays
  - BinarySearch - searches for a value in a sorted array via a binary search algorithm (function)
  - BinaryInsert - inserts a value into a sorted array via a binary search algorithm (function)
  - InterpolatingSearch - searches for a value in a sorted array via an interpolating search algorithm (function)
- StringRecipes - solutions to various common string manipulation needs
- RandomStrings - generate random strings from defined char sets (function)
- To-string conversion and output
  - StringInterpolation - interpolating variables into strings in Lua (functions and design patterns)
  - TableSerialization - converting tables to strings and vice versa
  - LuaPrintf - emulation of printf string formatting (function)
  - FormattingNumbers - format numbers in monetary format (function)
  - HexDump - dump a string in typical 'hex dump' format
- Numerical: HammingNumbers | HammingWeight
Building, Binding, and Packaging
- BuildingLua - notes on compiling Lua and some build packages
- Special linking:
  - BinToCee - generate a C file to load and run a Lua program
  - LuaProxyDll - create a proxy DLL for statically linked Lua
  - LoadLibrary - discussion of issues with Win32 LoadLibrary module loading
  - ApplicationBinaryInterface - notes on binary interface (ABI) compatibility in Lua modules
  - EasyManualLibraryLoad - greatly simplifies manual loading of Lua 5.1 shared library
- BuildingModules - How to properly build C extension modules for Lua.
  - BindingCodeToLua - how to call or bind C or C++ code to Lua
  - LuaRocks - installs Lua modules as self-contained packages (with dependency info) called "rocks"
- LuaBuildSystems - Build systems implemented or expressed in Lua
- PlatformSpecific - Platform-specific breakdown of the Lua universe
- VeritasMachine - Objective-C bind of Lua on iOS, with most feature supported.
Extending and Using Lua
- LuaAddons - a directory of "things for Lua" that are outside this site
- Modules/Libraries
  - LuaForge - contains modules (and applications)
  - LibrariesAndBindings - list of libraries implemented in Lua or implemented in another language (e.g. C) but having a Lua interface
  - LuaRocks - installs Lua modules as self-contained packages (with dependency info) called "rocks"
  - LuaSearch - intends to become a centralized locater of Lua modules and documentation
  - SampleCode - modules and code snippets on this wiki
  - LuaProjects - wiki pages that mirror projects
- Modifying Lua and Enhancement Proposals
  - LuaPowerPatches - "mix and match"-friendly patches to the official Lua distribution
  - ModifyingLua - example of changing Lua itself
  - FeatureProposals - discussions about new features or feature changes.
Problem Domains (Application Domains)
- GUI and Graphics
  - GraphicalUserInterfaceToolkits, LibrariesAndBindings and LuaGraphics
- AnsiTerminalColors - console colors
- Text and XML Processing
  - LuaXml - methods of handling XML in Lua (Lua code and C-bindings to parsers)
  - GenericInputAlgorithms - functional, AWK-style text processing in Lua
  - FiltersSourcesAndSinks - discusses chaining of filters, which are functions that accept successive chunks of input, and produce successive chunks of output
  - SlightlyLessSimpleLuaPreprocessor - macro processor
  - TextTemplate - macro processor
  - Text Editing or Formatting Lua Code
    - LuaEditorSupport - syntax highlighting, auto-formatting, etc.
    - SciteScripts - Lua scripts for the SciTE text editor
    - SourceCodeFormatter - may be helpful to format your code for the wiki
    - VmMerge - merges Lua source code with VM disassembly
- Unicode/localization/charsets
  - LuaUnicode - how to use Unicode in Lua
  - LuaLocales - how to use locales in Lua
- Other
  - ModuleReview - modules by domain with an independent assessment of them
  - LibrariesAndBindings - Lua libraries and bindings to existing libraries and environments
Lua Implementation
- LuaSource - comments on the source code and implementation of Lua. (LuaSourceTable - some notes about Lua's table implementation)
- LuaPowerPatches - "mix and match"-friendly patches to the official Lua distribution
- ModifyingLua - example of changing Lua itself
- LuaImplementations - Reimplementations of Lua
Code Improvement
- Quality and Testing
  - ProgramAnalysis - static code analysis or dynamic program analysis) of Lua code
  - UnitTesting - how to write unit tests with Lua
  - DebuggingLuaCode - tools for Lua code debugging
  - DetectingUndefinedVariables - detecting undefined locals
  - LuaTypeChecking - approaches to type checking in Lua
  - LuaStyleGuide - recommended Lua coding practices
- Performance and Optimization
  - OptimisationTips - making Lua code more efficient, including profilers
  - ProfilingLuaCode - profilers for Lua code.
- Security: LuaSecurity - security aspects of Lua
Archive (pertains to old versions of Lua)
- LuaCheia - wish to make a full-featured language based on Lua that rivals other scripting languages
- PackageSystem - an embryonic package system for Lua 5
- LuaBinaryModules - allows pre-built libraries to be loaded at runtime, providing an alternative to the usual compile and link headaches
- VisualStudioSyntaxCheck - a tool for MS Visual Studio 6.0 to check the syntax of Lua files
- LuaInRealTimePrograms
Community (external links belong on LuaLinks please)
- LuaWorkShop - workshops gathering Lua users
- LuaAtFosdem - Lua events at FOSDEM (Free and Open Source Developers European Meeting)
- UserGroups - local and regional informal gatherings and groups
- LuaUses - examples of projects around the world that use Lua
- HelpWanted - listing of help wanted for community projects
- WishList - list of wished-for libraries and bindings and such
- IrcChannel - a chat room for discussing Lua
- LuaDevelopmentModel - how Lua functions and evolves
- LuaStats - Lua (un)popularity statistics
- LuaNews - summary of the latest happenings in the Lua world (last updated 2008)
lua-users website
- WikiHelp - info about how to use this wiki
- CastOfCharacters - who's who on this site
- LuaUsersLottery - how we pay for lua-users.org costs
- GuestBook - feedback about this site

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Last edited February 22, 2023 3:13 pm GMT (diff)