Lua Training Overview
Lua is a free, open-source programming language that is popular as an embedded plugin/extension language in different software products, In addition, Lua can also be used as a standalone language.
Lua is both powerful and easy to use with a reputation for being high performance, extremely portable, lightweight, and embeddable.
This Lua Programming training course teaches attendees how to write middle-sized standalone Lua programs and script software products where Lua is the embedded language. Students learn fundamental programming constructs in Lua, as well as concepts that are useful in other areas of software engineering.
Headcount Cap: Due to the intensive instructor interaction in this class, headcount is capped at 10 attendees per delivery.
Location and Pricing
Accelebrate offers instructor-led enterprise training for groups of 3 or more online or at your site. Most Accelebrate classes can be flexibly scheduled for your group, including delivery in half-day segments across a week or set of weeks. To receive a customized proposal and price quote for private corporate training on-site or online, please contact us.
In addition, some courses are available as live, instructor-led training from one of our partners.
Objectives
- Program using Lua's basic syntax and semantics
- Work with data types and data structures
- Create tables
- Work with conditionals
- Incorporate error handling
- Work with functions
- Use modules and packages
- Understand the building blocks of OOP in Lua
Prerequisites
All students must have familiarity with at least one other programming language. Having familiarity with other scripting languages is helpful, but not required.
Outline
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Introduction to Lua
- A bit of history
- Lua's goals, features and non-goals
- Resources of Lua documentation and tutorials
- Installing the Lua interpreter
- Setting up and using LuaRocks
Basic Syntax and Semantics
- Identifiers
- Comments, block comments
- Global variables and enforcing of strictness
- Local variables
- Standalone programs, program arguments
- Compilation units, chunks, expressions, semicolons
Data Types and Data Structures
- Basic types: nil, boolean, number, string
- Object types: function, userdata, thread, table
- References/objects vs. basic values
- The importance of tables in Lua
Introduction to Tables and Their Versatility
- Tables as an associative array
- Tables as numeric arrays, sequences
Basic Control Structures
- The if then elseif else end
- The while loop
- The repeat loop
- The simple for loop
Error Handling
- Return values vs exceptions
- Converting a return value to an exception
- Converting an exception to a return value
- Error levels
Example Programs
- Polynomial evaluation
- Breadth first search
- Additional exercises
More about Functions
- Named arguments
- Object-oriented calls
- Closures
- Currying
- Tail calls
- Multiple assignment and return
- Varargs
Iterators and Co-Routines
- The generic for loop
- Stateless vs stateful iterators
- Differences between iterators and co-routines
Metatables and Metamethods
- The set example
- The __tostring metamethod
- Arithmetic metamethods
- The __index, __newindex metamethods
- The __len metamethod
Modules and Packages
- Using modules
- Creating modules
- Organizing modules into packages
Object-oriented Programming
- The building blocks of OOP in Lua
- Examples
Discussion on more advanced language features
- Weak tables
- Finalizers
- Compilation, eval, loading
Conclusion
Training Materials
All Lua training students receive comprehensive courseware.
Courseware by NobleProg® Ltd, 2004 - 2021 All Rights Reserved.
Software Requirements
- Internet connection and a modern browser.
