Beginning Lua Programming (Programmer to Programmer) (Paperback)

~ Kurt Jung (Author), Aaron Brown (Author)
Key Phrases: vararg expression, lua script, lua file, Called Window, Calling Window, Natty Bumppo (more...)

Editorial Reviews

Product Description

Lua offers a wide range of features that you can use to support and enhance your applications. With this book as your guide, you’ll gain a thorough understanding of all aspects of programming with this powerful language. The authors present the fundamentals of programming, explain standard Lua functions, and explain how to take advantage of free Lua community resources. Complete code samples are integrated throughout the chapters to clearly demonstrate how to apply the information so that you can quickly write your own programs.

From the Back Cover

Lua offers a wide range of features that you can utilize to support and enhance your applications. With this book as your guide, you'll gain a thorough understanding of all aspects of programming with this powerful language. It will walk you through the basics, covering everything from installing Lua on your system to developing games and web sites.

Experts Jung and Brown first present the fundamentals of programming and explain standard Lua functions. They then show you how to take advantage of all of the free Lua community resources that are available. Complete code samples are integrated throughout the chapters to clearly demonstrate how to apply the information. Diagrams are also included to highlight important Lua features such as stacks, hash tables, garbage collection, and function closures. All of this will help you to quickly write your own effective programs.

What you will learn from this book

• Ways to extend Lua's operators with metamethods
• Methods on how to use tables, strings, and modules
• How to handle events naturally with coroutines
• Techniques for managing information with databases
• Tips for handling and avoiding programming errors
• Ways to create your own innovative games
• How to enhance application development using packages contributed by the Lua community
• Steps for presenting dynamic information on your web site

Who this book is for

This book is for beginning programmers, game developers, and web site developers who are interested in a simple yet powerful introduction to programming.

Wrox Beginning guides are crafted to make learning programming languages and technologies easier than you think, providing a structured, tutorial format that will guide you through all the techniques involved.

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Product Details

• Paperback: 644 pages
• Publisher: Wrox (February 12, 2007)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0470069171
• ISBN-13: 978-0470069172
• Product Dimensions: 9 x 7.3 x 1.6 inches
• Shipping Weight: 2 pounds (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 3.3 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (6 customer reviews)
• Amazon.com Sales Rank: #140,053 in Books (See Bestsellers in Books)

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

12 of 12 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars A Soup to Nuts Intro, April 16, 2007

By	Matthew M. Burke - See all my reviews (REAL NAME)

I'd like to give this book 4.5 stars, but that doesn't seem to be an option. I think quite highly of Lua and use it a lot. So I like to keep a collection of references that I can loan out to my colleagues and my students in a nut-so-subtle attempt to get them hooked. This book fulfills that role quite nicely.

I think this is an excellent book for several reasons: 1) I can loan it out both to intro students (who have not had much experience in compiling/installing software, coding anything other than toy programs, etc.) and I can loan it to colleagues who can skip all the fundamental material and yet still learn something interesting about Lua, and programming in general; 2) although it's close to 650 pages, it's 650ish pages of useful material, it doesn't achieve its bulk by being filled with gazillions of pages of on-line API documentation, and other fluff like many other intro books; 3) it has exercises (with answers in the back) for each chapter.

There are only two complaints I have with the book and neither are major. In Chapter 18 (Carrying Lua with you) there is no mention of the Lua port for PocketPC and a handful of other platforms. Although I don't use Windows much, there is a nice port of Lua that I use on an HP iPAQ. The other complaint is perhaps a little curmudgeonly: I don't like the authors' usage of the term "side-effect". While technically correct, it doesn't really align well with how most people, particularly in an intro setting, use the term.

That said, I think this is an excellent intro to Lua, contains good examples of programming in general, and I'm quite pleased to have a copy on my book collection.

13 of 14 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars C'mon mate, fair go!!!, May 6, 2007

By	Ricardo Dapaz "IT Consultant" (Perth, WA Australia) - See all my reviews (REAL NAME)

I think that some of the reviewers might have been a little harsh on this book. I do agree that the coverage of some of the more in-depth topics such as metatables, closures, upvalues to mention a few may have been better presented in the PIL but this book does offer value in its presentation of web programming, database programming and compiling Lua for various platforms, all of which are not covered in the PIL.

Also on the plus side, the typesetting is a bit richer and you can download all of the examples in the book from the wrox web site. Also, you will find that the examples covered in this book are quite extensive. PIL is better suited for more experienced programmers but if you are starting out with a scripting language, you have chosen well in Lua and you can't really go wrong with this book.

7 of 7 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars My review of the "Beginning Lua Programming", November 3, 2007

By	Real Time Embedded (Detroit, MI USA) - See all my reviews

First of all, I am impressed with this book. It is easy reading. The technical content is cohesive. It flows from one topic to the next in a smooth logical manor. The writers did a very good job of directing the text to me, the reader, and not to empty space. I have been programming with real time embedded systems since 1975. My first programming experience was writing assembler code in Octal for an Intel 8080a processor. Since those days, I have had the opportunity, or the misfortune as some would say, to read volumes of manuals. Most manuals were written by the supplier of the CPU, such as Intel, Motorola, Zilog, TI, ST Micro, etc. To say the least, the information was mostly there. Although it took an enormous amount of time to `extract' the information. The point of this, is to say time is precious. Having to read a manual while under a time deadline is not much fun. So when I began reading Lua Programming by Jung and Brown, was I pleasantly surprised! It is as though the writers were in the room talking directly to me. Not talking to empty space, but actually talking to me, the reader. Because they took the time to write clearly and concisely, this book will be in my library with my 8080a assembly language primer.

However before I finish, I feel that I must address an injustice. At this time, there are two other reviews of this book, those reviews did a terrible hack job in the form of a review. It appears nothing more that an amateurish attempt to discredit a fine book. Since both refer to the exact same book, I can only image they were paid to write those disingenuous reviews.

I would honestly rate this book as a solid 4.5 for the above mentioned items. But because of the two hacks, I shall rate the book a 5 to right the afore mentioned injustice.