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JavaScript VS Lua

Compare JavaScript VS Lua and see what are their differences

JavaScript logo JavaScript

Lightweight, interpreted, object-oriented language with first-class functions

Lua logo Lua

Powerful, fast, lightweight, embeddable scripting language
  • JavaScript Landing page
    Landing page //
    2023-08-05

We recommend LibHunt JavaScript for discovery and comparisons of trending JavaScript projects.

  • Lua Landing page
    Landing page //
    2023-01-29

We recommend LibHunt Lua for discovery and comparisons of trending Lua projects.

JavaScript features and specs

  • Wide Browser Support
    JavaScript is supported by all modern web browsers without the need for any plugins, making it highly versatile for client-side scripting.
  • Asynchronous Programming
    JavaScript supports asynchronous programming with features like callbacks, Promises, and async/await, which helps in efficiently handling tasks such as HTTP requests.
  • Rich Ecosystem and Libraries
    The JavaScript ecosystem includes a vast amount of libraries and frameworks like React, Angular, Vue, and Node.js, which streamline development processes.
  • Community Support
    JavaScript has a large and active community, providing extensive resources, documentation, and forums for troubleshooting and development advice.
  • Event-Driven
    The language is inherently event-driven, making it suitable for developing interactive web applications that react to user inputs.
  • Full-Stack Development
    With the advent of Node.js, JavaScript can be used for both client-side and server-side development, enabling full-stack development using a single language.

Possible disadvantages of JavaScript

  • Security Issues
    Being an interpreted language that runs in the browser, JavaScript code is visible to the user, making it susceptible to security risks such as Cross-Site Scripting (XSS).
  • Browser Compatibility
    While JavaScript itself is widely supported, different browsers may implement JavaScript functions and standards differently, leading to compatibility issues.
  • Performance
    JavaScript is generally slower than compiled languages such as C++ or Java. Heavy computations can lead to performance bottlenecks.
  • Single Inheritance
    JavaScript uses prototypal inheritance instead of classical inheritance, which can be confusing for developers coming from object-oriented programming backgrounds.
  • Dynamic Typing
    JavaScript's dynamic typing can lead to runtime errors that are hard to debug, as variable types are checked at runtime rather than during compilation.
  • Fragmentation
    The ecosystem has many competing libraries, frameworks, and tools, which can make it overwhelming for developers to choose the right technologies for their projects.

Lua features and specs

  • Easy to Embed
    Lua is designed to be embedded within applications. It has a simple C API which allows it to be integrated easily with C, C++ and other languages.
  • Small Footprint
    Lua is lightweight, with a small memory footprint. This makes it ideal for use in resource-constrained environments, such as embedded systems and game development.
  • Fast Performance
    Lua is known for its high performance due to its efficient interpreter and just-in-time compilation capabilities provided by LuaJIT.
  • Simplicity
    The syntax of Lua is simple and clean, making it easy to learn and use. It's designed to be both powerful and simple.
  • Extensibility
    Lua can be extended through libraries written in C or other languages, allowing for a lot of flexibility and functionality expansion.
  • Dynamic Typing
    Lua uses dynamic typing, which can make code more flexible and easier to write without the need for explicit type definitions.

Possible disadvantages of Lua

  • Limited Standard Library
    The standard library in Lua is relatively small compared to other programming languages, which can result in the need for additional third-party libraries.
  • Niche Use Case
    Lua is not as widely adopted for general-purpose programming compared to other languages such as Python or JavaScript, which might limit community support and resources.
  • Error Handling
    Lua's error handling mechanisms are somewhat rudimentary compared to languages that offer advanced exception handling like Python or Java.
  • Lack of Type Safety
    While dynamic typing offers flexibility, it also introduces the risk of type errors at runtime, as type mismatches can only be discovered during execution.
  • Concurrency Limitations
    Lua does not have inherent support for multithreading or concurrency within the language itself. It relies on external libraries or specific environments to handle such tasks.

JavaScript videos

Learn JavaScript in 7 minutes | Create Interactive Websites | Code in 5

More videos:

  • Review - Top 10 JavaScript Interview Questions
  • Review - Learn JavaScript in 12 Minutes

Lua videos

Is Lua A Good First Language To Learn?

More videos:

  • Tutorial - Introduction - What is Lua? || Lua Tutorial #1
  • Review - Xerjoff Lua Fragrance / Cologne Review + GIVEAWAY!

Category Popularity

0-100% (relative to JavaScript and Lua)
Programming Language
50 50%
50% 50
OOP
55 55%
45% 45
Generic Programming Language
Languages
100 100%
0% 0

User comments

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Reviews

These are some of the external sources and on-site user reviews we've used to compare JavaScript and Lua

JavaScript Reviews

Top 10 Rust Alternatives
In simple words, the main goal of JavaScript is to develop web pages and is used for authentication procedures. Some of the pros of using JavaScript as an alternative to Rust are follows.
Top 15 jQuery Alternatives To Know
ExtJS, as the name suggests, stands for Extended JavaScript. As an offering from Sencha, it depends on YahooUserInterface. ExtJS helps in creating data intensified HTML5 apps with JavaScript. It consists of a huge collection of customizable and high-performance widgets that assist in creating cross-platform mobile and web apps, for any type of modernized device.
The 10 Best Programming Languages to Learn Today
JavaScript skills are always in high demand – most of the world's top websites and apps rely on JavaScript in one way or another. Plus, JavaScript is a great springboard for learning more complex programming languages.
Source: ict.gov.ge

Lua Reviews

We have no reviews of Lua yet.
Be the first one to post

Social recommendations and mentions

Based on our record, Lua seems to be more popular. It has been mentiond 23 times since March 2021. We are tracking product recommendations and mentions on various public social media platforms and blogs. They can help you identify which product is more popular and what people think of it.

JavaScript mentions (0)

We have not tracked any mentions of JavaScript yet. Tracking of JavaScript recommendations started around Mar 2021.

Lua mentions (23)

  • What do I think about Lua after shipping a project with 60k lines of code?
    I would start at https://lua.org/ I'm creating a set of libraries to make Lua into a (still lightweight) application language https://github.com/civboot/civlua. - Source: Hacker News / 11 months ago
  • How Programming Languages Got Their Names
    Lua means 'Moon' in Portuguese, as it is also their logo: https://lua.org. - Source: Hacker News / about 1 year ago
  • Where can I learn lua
    The official lua website is a pretty good place to go! As well as lua users & tutorials point has a really good tutorial for lua too! The official site may be hard to understand at time (it was for me at least) but that’s why I gave you the other two. they’ll explain it simpler/better than the official site may sometimes. Hope this helps! Source: about 2 years ago
  • A Weekly Class for PICO-8 Beginners
    1) Who Should Sign Up? - People with no, little, or intermediate skills in programming or PICO-8. 2) What Will We Cover? - Fantasy Console Paradigm: The Full Overview of What PICO-8 can do. - Lua and the uses of its modified API within PICO-8. Programming, 101. 3) What to Expect - A full game all your own! - Brought together in a 4-8 classes, in live teaching sessions in which you can interact with... Source: about 2 years ago
  • data types in function definition
    I have tried a few thins but no luck and found nothing on the web, also looks as if lua.org main forums no longer exist. Source: over 2 years ago
View more

What are some alternatives?

When comparing JavaScript and Lua, you can also consider the following products

Python - Python is a clear and powerful object-oriented programming language, comparable to Perl, Ruby, Scheme, or Java.

Java - A concurrent, class-based, object-oriented, language specifically designed to have as few implementation dependencies as possible

C++ - Has imperative, object-oriented and generic programming features, while also providing the facilities for low level memory manipulation

Rust - A safe, concurrent, practical language

Typescript - TypeScript allows developers to compile a superset of JavaScript to plain JavaScript on any browser, host, or operating system.

TigerText Essentials - Empower care teams to communicate efficiently with TigerText Essentials, a secure, HIPAA-compliant communications and messaging solution. Communicate securely from your smartphone or desktop!