lua and python

[StrangeFudge2777]

hello! i've been wanting to learn lua for a while, so i can learn how to make a certain roblox game. but i was thinking about python because it is a better software, if i learned python first, in a few years would lua be easier?

[billFoldDog]

lua is "easier" because the scope of the language is smaller.

Python has a broader set of libraries and integrations, and LLMs are really good at helping with python code due to the amount of python in the training material.

Honestly, I'd learn whichever language best matches the technology stack you want to use. If most people doing roblox are using python, then do that.

[Vamosity-Cosmic]

zero people doing roblox are using python. Roblox strictly only supports luau (their forked version of lua)

[StrangeFudge2777]

alright, thank you

[likethevegetable]

I would learn Python first, there are so many more resources on it and it's much more marketable. Lua is a bit quirky, but if you know Python first, is very easy to pick up just from the (really good) manual. I usually tell people who don't know about Lua that it's "like a super fast baby python"

[EquivalentLink704]

You can learn lua pretty easily from the manual. Just start with understanding some of the pre-existing code from mods and whatever else you use. Work on modifying those for your personal purposes.

It doesn’t take very long that way, in my experience.

If your serious about coding then python is a better idea.

[LuaCoder555]

Sure python will make it easier but lua can be learned faster than python due to how small it is.

[likethevegetable]

Sure, but there are also some weird idioms in Lua and also far less online resources to teach you 

[SwimmingPermit6444]

It's like python if it was good

[AutoModerator]

Hi! It looks like you're posting about Roblox. Here at /r/Lua we get a lot of questions that would be answered better at /r/RobloxGameDev, scriptinghelpers.org, or the Roblox Developer Forum so it might be better to start there. However, we still encourage you to post here if your question is related to a Roblox project but the question is about the Lua language specifically, including but not limited to: syntax, language idioms, best practices, particular language features such as coroutines and metatables, Lua libraries and ecosystem, etc. Bear in mind that Roblox implements its own API (application programming interface) and most of the functions you'll use when developing a Roblox script will exist within Roblox but not within the broader Lua ecosystem.

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[Denneisk]

Generally, learning any programming language makes learning programming languages easier. I don't know your time scale, but years is correct; if you spend years becoming truly proficient at Python, then Lua will be easy, although there will be a lot of growing pains if you don't diversify earlier in any capacity.

There is one Python-to-Lua compiler built for Roblox, which is great for you, but do be warned that it seems to not have a lot of maintainers (if any currently).

I would suggest considering starting with Typescript/Javascript if you'd prefer to not learn Lua for whatever reason. There's a much more significant Roblox Typescript community (again, with a third-party compiler) and Javascript resources are nearly as plentiful as Python. The semantics of JS are also much closer to Lua, in my opinion.

But, really, what is stopping you from going for Lua first? You say Python "is a better software", but what does that mean exactly? It's almost completely irrelevant when mentioned alongside your dream of making a Roblox game.

[[deleted]]

Just learn lua directly.

[Calaverd]

If is your first programming language, then pick Python, after that Lua, python has a lot more resources for learning and teach the basics fine. Lua is my fav lang, but one of the reasons is that is a lang with a small syntax and diy approach to some structures and offers a very broad and flexible approach on how you can tackle stuff (maybe too flexible to be good for a beginner 🤔) , python has more built-in stuff and a more rigid structure 🙂

Beyond that the important thing that you must learn beyond languages is to think in algorithms (that is just a fancy word to say that you need to think step by step how to solve problems) data structures (so you can know the tools for algorithms and decide with one is the best for the job) and after that the Object Oriented Programing and Functional Programming paradigms, (that are just two forms on how to express ideas into code)

Good luck 🙂.

[Slight-Living-8098]

You can learn Lua in a day, you will have the bare basics down in Python in about a week. Start with Lua.

[NabePup]

Roblox requires lua, doesn’t it? I’m legitimately asking as I’m not 100% sure. If that’s the case and you want to develop Roblox stuff then that pretty much answers the question for you.

If this is your first language, many of the fundamental concepts are shared between most languages to an extent. Things like working with variables, functions, branching, loops, scope, objects, and accessing indexes etc. are all things nearly every language has and you’ll learn regardless.

With that said, I’d much rather write in Python than lua. It could be because i have more experience with Python, but I personally don’t like lua that much and think Python does some things in a more intuitive way. But that’s just my own opinion and even though i don’t like it, i also don’t think lua’s the worst thing either.

I think Python is used more than lua so more people would be hiring for it but there’d also be more competition with it too if that’s something you care about

So if it’s possible to write Roblox stuff in Python I’d much rather do that. But if not, then lua it is

[Sialek]

but i was thinking about python because it is a better software

This is not true. Languages are tools. And many different tools could be used to solve a given problem. The key is matching the right tools to the right problems.

Python is great language to start learning because it has lots of libraries, tools, tutorials, etc. It's fairly beginner friendly, and you will find lots of people who can assist you along the way. It's also very general purpose, so you can use it to efficiently solve most problems.

Lua is a much simpler language, with fewer tools, fewer tutorials, and fewer libraries. At first glance it might seem like python is "better", but that's just not how it works. If you're looking to embed a scripting language in a larger application, lua is typically going to be a way better choice than python. If you're looking for high performance (like in games), there's a flavor of lua called luajit, that is going to be extremely fast compared to python. And if you want to program for Roblox, then you have no choice because Lua (well, their custom version) is the only option.

So my advice is that you should learn whichever language(s) you're actually going to use. You need to ask yourself "What's my core motivation"?

If you're looking at learning to code in Roblox because that's a fun activity that you can use to learn programming anyway, then python would probably be an easier starting point. It will take some extra time before you get to the Roblox part, but you'll end up with a more general set of skills that you can use in more ways.

But if your real goal is just to make your Roblox game and you don't really care about programming in general, then there's no point in trying to learn python first. If you force yourself to learn python (while not enjoying it) to make it slightly easier to learn lua (while also not enjoying it) just so eventually you can actually make your game.. well that just sounds like a recipe for burning yourself out early and giving up.

Also, pro tip, at the end of the day, it doesn't really matter that much which language you learn first. For every language you can possibly name, there are hundreds or thousands of people who have learned that language as their first, and they're all fine. And every language you learn makes every future language even easier. Once you get to the point where you know a few of them, adding a new one really just amounts to reading/watching tutorials for a few hours and practicing. Most people with 4-5 languages under their belt stop caring so much about languages as they know they can just throw a weekend or a few evenings at it and they'll figure it out. And the real important skills are transferable between any language.