Lua is a programming language originally designed for extending applications,
but also frequently used as a general-purpose, stand-alone language. Lua
combines simple procedural syntax (similar to Pascal) with powerful data
description constructs based on associative arrays and extensible semantics.
Lua is dynamically typed, interpreted from bytecodes, and has automatic memory
management, making it ideal for configuration, scripting, and rapid
prototyping. Lua is implemented as a small library of C functions, written in
ANSI C, and compiles unmodified in all known platforms. The implementation
goals are simplicity, efficiency, portability, and low embedding cost.