@lua-official - Tumblr Blog

So I've been playing this Minecraft server with some friends recently, and one of the mods we have on it is this lil computer mod, with these blocks that serve as LUA environments and can have code run on them right

So I thought it'd be a fun change of pace to not 'join the server' directly at all, and exclusively play through remotely controlling these lil computer blocks via a small websocket server I made- seemed like a unique way to play and I, of course, love robot characters. It's been going well so far! Been really fun

buUUT

I'm sitting here playing with everyone else in the server and people are actively referring to me as a robot/machine/etc and mentioning robotic parts like 'threatening' to hit my power button when getting jokingly mad and discussing my nature as a digital consciousness spread throughout a buncha puters here etc and it's been REALLY fun and

This feels WAY too much like gender euphoria

This has potentially developed into a complicated situation what the fuck do I do

within-time

lua-official

I don't wanna write collision code :c

lua-official

collision code mines

I don't wanna write collision code :c

punkitt-is-here

my boyfriend is helping me code stuff for Susan Taxpayer and im sitting here going :)

zeroterabytes

No but why the FUCK WOULD THEY DO IT IN LUA. I FEEL YOUR BOYFRIEND

In most programming languages, the first element of an indexed list/array is at index 0. This is known as zero-indexing. Lua uses lists that are 1-indexed, not 0-indexed, meaning that the first element of the list is at index 1, not 0.

"But why does this suck?" For one, calculations using modulo are just a bit more annoying. Let's say that you want to loop around in an array. Basically, after you've gone past the last valid index, you want to go to back to the first element.

In most languages, you'd do it like this:

for i in [0, n): x = arr[i % arr.length] // do something with x I guess

This is very simple. However, in Lua, things like for loops also start at 1 by design, and have inclusive end bounds.

for i in 1,n-1 do x = arr[ (i - 1) % #arr + 1 ] -- do something with n end

Not just that, but in a Lua file, all variables have global scope by default. This means that if you declare a variable in a function, it can be accessed outside that function. Here's an example:

function f() x = 2 print(x) end function g() x = 3 f() print(x) end

Here's the output of g():

2 2

(Note that you can make a variable have local scope by adding the keyword "local" before the variable name. But that's pretty annoying.)

zeroterabytes

Some more stuff (that I just remembered):

Lua also does not have ++, +=, --, -=, *=, and /= operators !!!!!! If you want to increment a value, you'd have to do it like this:

variable = variable + 1 variable = variable - 2 -- you get the idea

Also, LUA IS NOT STATICALLY TYPED !!!!!!!!!!! There is no way to explicitly specify the type of any variable, function parameter, or function return type. This can lead to SO. MANY. RUNTIME. ERRORS.

lua-official

the reason they would do it in lua is because it is a language designed to be embedded, it's heavily customizable in how it is embedded, extremely simple, (it's entire syntax can fit on a page of paper easily) thus allowing more people to get into making content with scripting, is very efficient, especially if you use the faster implementations like LuaJIT, AND it is EXTREMELY powerful! with just the simple rules it has, you can implement so much. some examples are: fully functional OoP, various data structures, swizzle-able vectors (something you don't get in most languages), functions that take functions, allowing things like map and filter and so much abstraction potential, generating global functions automatically from just the name, and so much more.

now I'm also going to address the points you made

the one-indexed thing is annoying, but there is nothing special about a list in lua!

{ "a", "b", "c" }

is the same as

{

[1] = "a",

[2] = "b",

[3] = "c"

}

so if you really wanted to you could start assigning at 0 instead. even just

{ [0] = "a", "b", "c" }

would work! the length operator will be one off, and ipairs wont work properly but you could probably do something with a wrapper table of some sort

for globals by default, it just means locals become part of the syntax. just how you have to do "var name" in JS and "type name" in c-style languages.

no assigning arithmetic operators can be a little annoying, but it's not that bad. for more complex things, such as incrementing a table value, put the table in a variable before hand if it's nested or make a function to do it.

and for it being dynamically typed, Lua makes it very easy to type check, especially if you make function abstractions for it. you could make something that ensures an entire table follows exactly the right format you need it to based on a table you define.

I think Lua is a language people hate a lot at first if they're coming from other languages because of how different it is from everything out there, when that is exactly what makes it so uniquely powerful.

#longest post on this blog lmao #holy rant

punkitt-is-here

my boyfriend is helping me code stuff for Susan Taxpayer and im sitting here going :)

lua-official

:c

fuuuuck I need to do some stuff on here

godofautism-deactivated20250725

:3

True !

:3

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rust-official-deactivated202605

:3

gay-systemdeez

:3

executivedysfunctionfemme

:3

6900baud

:3

lua-official

:3

godofautism-deactivated20250725

:3

True !

:3

:3

:3

:3

:3

:3

:3

rust-official-deactivated202605

:3

gay-systemdeez

:3

executivedysfunctionfemme

:3

6900baud

:3

fun fact: in various instances in Programming in Lua, she/her pronouns are used for a generic user of the language. this was done to accurately reflect the target demographic of Lua.

#shitpost