Need some help! Lua or Luau

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#1

I want to choose a programming language, which of these appeals more to my criteria?

  • Fast to learn (max 3 weeks)
  • Simple
  • Beginner friendly
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#2

First of all, you can’t learn a whole language in 3 weeks and expect to get good. It take a lot of time. Luckily Lua is simple, and it easy to learn for beginners.

I suggest taking Lua because Luau is just a modified version of lua, so if you learn lua first it’s very very easy to catch on to luau. They are basically the same thing with a few changes.

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#3

I dont want to get good, just know the basics already

#4

Ok, well I said lua, everyone has different opinions on this topic. My suggestion is lua.

#5

If you want to start developing on Roblox then Lua, if not then I would suggest a more conventional language such as Python or JavaScript.

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#6

If you’re not aware, you use luau to develop on Roblox.

#7

Lua is Lua, the original language without any extras.

Luau, aka Roblox Lua, is the Roblox version of Lua, with stuff like Instances and Parts and events.

You don’t need to choose a language to learn if you are starting off. the most important part is knowing the logic. Once you know the logic, you can then learn how to implement in different languages.

If you are starting off, I recommend learning Python as there is lots of books on it and it natively has Object Oriented Programming. If you were to choose Lua or Luau, I would recommend to learn Luau, but it doesn’t have much full tutorials like everything you need to know.

I recommend learning Python to get to know the logic of programming, and then implement or write the logic in Luau

There used to be a Roblox Lua book that was in the Roblox Dev wiki, but idk where it went after the wiki was turned into the devhub

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#8

I personally would suggest JavaScript over Python. JavaScript has the popular extension language TypeScript, whos type system has a similar syntax to luau.

#9

Lua and Luau are basically the same thing, though if you learn Luau it will be for Roblox scripting, while Lua is the base unmodified version of that used for coding outside of Roblox. What are you planning to do with the language you learn anyway?

  • Lua and Luau are fast to learn.

  • Both are simple.

  • Both are beginner friendly.

(This is all as far as I know, based on what I have been learning)
For reference I was learning C++ earlier this year, and Lua and Luau both seem less complex than it is.

In the end which language you choose should be based on what you are doing with it, and your personal preference.

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#10

Thank you! I have question. How do i access the Lua? I keep getting that cmd type of window, i need that microsoft redistruable something?

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#11

yes i say lua too because luau mite be more complex

#12

First off, might*
Second, Luau is Lua. There’s nothing more complex about it depending on how you want to structure your code. You can do the exact same things in Lua, and it’ll run fine with Luau.

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#13

Luau is Lua with more stuff. If you code in Roblox, you are using Luau. It is just Roblox’s extension of Lua.

#14

i know but luau has more things right?

#15

I came here to give my opinion.
I don’t think there are languages more complex than others (except esoteric ones). It all comes to how you learn.
When I want to learn a new language, I just simply watch a crash course and modify the code about the certain concept so I can truly learn how to do it.

for context, I started learning C 3 days ago and I’m already writing GUI applications code.

Since you’re on Roblox’s developer forum, I’d say to learn Luau, since it’s the only one language you can code on Roblox. (there are some transpilers too, such as roblox-ts!) Just please don’t use Python, at the start it looks easy, but once you start doing complex stuff with it, it becomes spaghetti code especially with it’s indentation rules
But in the end, it’s up to you to choose whatever language you want.

This video teaches you step by step. You compile Lua’s source code, put the compiler .exe in the environment variables, and then you can simply run the command line with lua luaFileToCompileLocation.lua

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#16

Hey there!

Try to learn languages you are interested in. If you learn a language purely because it’s easy to learn, you might not use it to it’s fullest extent. If you want to create a Roblox game, make Lua. If you want to create a game with Unity, learn C#. Of course, each language has it’s own difficulty and cases of use, but it really just depends on what you’re interested in.

Also, if you are purely interested in a language because you think it will be easy to learn, there’s a chance you will get demotivated, since a lot of languages are a lot more “in depth” or “complicated” than you’d think at first glance.

To sum it all up, just choose the language you find most interesting! :smiley:

Hope this helps! :smiley:

#17

I would start with lua, its easier to learn and then you can catch up to luau. But if your into a challange with a little more time then you can do python.

#18

Intresting. I think it really doesn’t matter as long as you understand the logic of the syntax.

I put Python because of its popularity and because you can easily add onto it and because I know it well, but you can also do that in JS.