Lua Glossary

Browse 6 lua terms defined in plain English, from the cultural dictionary of computing.

6 Lua Terms

Lua Module
A self-contained Lua script that returns a table of functions and values, loaded via `require()`. Lua's module system uses the `package.path` and...
LuaRocks
The package manager for the Lua programming language, allowing developers to install, manage, and distribute Lua modules and their dependencies.
Metamethod
In Lua, a special function defined in a metatable that overrides default behavior for operations like addition, comparison, indexing, or string conversion on a...
Metatable
In Lua, a regular table attached to another table that defines fallback behavior through metamethods — enabling operator overloading, inheritance, and custom...
Nil
A value representing the absence of data — called nil in Ruby, Lua, and Go, null in Java/JS/C#, and None in Python. Often a source of runtime errors when not...
Userdata
A Lua type that represents arbitrary C data stored as a raw memory block. Used to expose C structs and objects to Lua scripts when embedding Lua in a host...

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