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Chapter 1
Introduction to Lua
Apple has been issuing checks to developers, and the 2012 figures indicate that it has so far been
to the tune of $5 billion. In the past, it used to be desktops with Microsoft-based products that were
raking in money for developers, with Visual Basic, or earlier with database products such as dBase
and FoxPro. While the major share of this revenue goes to larger companies such as EA, Chillingo,
Gameloft, Rovio and even Disney, a lot of indie developers and smaller companies vie for a share of
that big pie. Who knows what idea might just become the money-spinner for a developer. Robert Nay,
a 14-year-old, made the game Bubble Ball while he was learning to code, and it went viral, with over
8 million downloads. And no one knows what the next top game will be.
As a person that has an interest in development, you have made the first step in this journey. You
could be a student that has never developed before, or you could be a guru developer who can
whip up an enterprise app in minutes. The point is that whatever your background, you are for some
reason drawn to this strange-sounding language, Lua (pronounced LOO-ah.).
What Is Lua?
Lua is a programming language that has a small footprint, works across several platforms, and is
quite flexible and extensible. Further, Lua is a game changer for developers that want to write apps
for the mobile devices. It has powered a lot of apps and games in the Apple App Store, and it has
been spoken about by the late Steve Jobs. It has even been linked with one of the most advanced
self-replicating and mutating viruses, the Flame. Despite all of that, Lua remains to be a language
that seems more like plain English than a cryptic programmer’s language, making it a language with
a smaller learning curve.
The History of Lua
While knowing the history of Lua will not change anything in terms of making anyone a better
programmer, it important to get an idea of why you’d want to use Lua.
Lua was created at the Pontifical Catholic University of Rio de Janeiro, Brazil, by Roberto
Ierusalimschy, Luiz Henrique de Figueiredo, and Waldemar Celes, who were members of the
