Introduction

Notes on the Implementation of Lua 5.3 is a collection of my notes on the Lua 5.3 source code. It's a mix of both high-level ideas and interesting details in the source code.

There can be errors. Feel free to contact me if you have any question or feedback.

If you like the book, you might enjoy my other stuffs.

What is Lua?

From lua.org:

Lua is a powerful, efficient, lightweight, embeddable scripting language. It supports procedural programming, object-oriented programming, functional programming, data-driven programming, and data description. Lua combines simple procedural syntax with powerful data description constructs based on associative arrays and extensible semantics. Lua is dynamically typed, runs by interpreting bytecode with a register-based virtual machine, and has automatic memory management with incremental garbage collection, making it ideal for configuration, scripting, and rapid prototyping. Lua has been used in many industrial applications (e.g., Adobe's Photoshop Lightroom ), with an emphasis on embedded systems (e.g., the Ginga middleware for digital TV in Brazil) and games (e.g., World of Warcraft and Angry Birds).

How to read this book

Reading code is personal. It's different from reading a book. It's trying to understand the design of a system. It's non-linear, tearing down, cross-referencing, experimenting, put it back together, and repeat.

This book is not a comprehensive, line-by-line explanation. This book is a tour guide. It's a companion, instead of a replacement, of your journey.

License

Notes on the Implementation of Lua 5.3 is licensed under CC BY-NC-SA 2.0.