Reviews for Programming in Lua

The average rating for Programming in Lua based on 2 reviews is 2.5 stars.

Review # 1 was written on 2007-09-03 00:00:00 J�rgen Alexander Lerbakk The two star rating for this book is by no means a reflection of the Lua language itself. Simply, "Programming in Lua" just isn't a good resource for learning the language--though sadly, it may be the best one that exists. "PiL" as the elite Lua hackers call it has at least these problems: 1.) Incorrect examples - some of the code given simply doesn't work. 2.) Questionable chapter ordering - some rather obscure topics come before useful ones 3.) No redundancies - the book is too minimalist for its own good. When writing code in an unfamiliar tongue (keyboard?), it's easy to make a simple typo or to have a slightly different setup. If things don't go exactly according to plan, don't expect PiL to help you out. 4.) Few explanations - Lua does things differently than other languages. Sometimes it'd be nice to know why. The writers saw no reason to enlighten the reader as to their motives. 5.) References required - sometimes a concept from later chapters would sneak its way into an earlier chapter. This stealthy tidbit would often go unnoticed by the authors so the reader will want to have the reference manual close at hand. The saving grace of PiL is it's excellent companion book, the Lua Reference Manual. It is concise and informative, well organized, and has all the appendices you could ever want yet weighs in at under 100 pages. I often wondered if it wouldn't be the superior text from which to learn the language.

Review # 2 was written on 2021-02-25 00:00:00 Zan Agee This is not a book for beginners who want to learn programming. This is a book for programmers on how to program in Lua. Because of this it is short and to the point. There are a few examples in every chapter. No exercises. The first edition is old but still mostly relevant and it's available for free at lua.org