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Pike programming language VS Lua

Compare Pike programming language VS Lua and see what are their differences

Pike programming language logo Pike programming language

Dynamic programming language with a syntax similar to Java and C

Lua logo Lua

Powerful, fast, lightweight, embeddable scripting language
  • Pike programming language Landing page
    Landing page //
    2023-10-15
  • Lua Landing page
    Landing page //
    2023-01-29

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

Pike programming language features and specs

  • Cross-platform Compatibility
    Pike can run on various platforms, including UNIX-like systems, Windows, and macOS, which makes it versatile for developers working in different environments.
  • Built-in Support for Object-Oriented Programming
    Pike supports object-oriented programming (OOP) paradigms, which allows developers to create reusable and modular code structures.
  • Efficient String and Data Handling
    Pike provides robust tools for handling strings and other data types, which simplifies text processing and parsing tasks.
  • Garbage Collection
    Automated memory management via garbage collection helps in reducing memory leaks, aiding developers in focusing more on application logic than memory management.
  • Rich Standard Library
    Pike offers a comprehensive standard library with modules for network programming, cryptography, multimedia handling, and more, aiding rapid development.

Possible disadvantages of Pike programming language

  • Relatively Niche Community
    Pike has a smaller user community compared to more popular languages, which can result in less community support, fewer tutorials, and limited third-party libraries.
  • Less Corporate Backing
    Unlike languages backed by large corporations, Pike may lack extensive development resources and long-term support guarantees.
  • Learning Curve
    For developers coming from more mainstream languages, Pike's syntax and concepts may take some time to get used to, prolonging the initial learning process.
  • Limited Integration with New Technologies
    The slower pace of updates and limited resources might make Pike fall behind in integrating the latest technological advancements and trends.
  • Scalability Challenges
    While suitable for small to medium-sized projects, Pike might pose challenges when used for very large systems requiring advanced concurrency management.

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.

Pike programming language videos

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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 Pike programming language and Lua)
Programming Language
23 23%
77% 77
OOP
29 29%
71% 71
Development
100 100%
0% 0
Generic Programming Language

User comments

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Social recommendations and mentions

Based on our record, Lua should be more popular than Pike programming language. 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.

Pike programming language mentions (4)

  • The C Interpreter: A Tutorial for Cin
    I'm sure I remember Pike starting off as a literal C interpreter, but somewhere along the line decided to become it's own 'C-like' language. https://pike.lysator.liu.se Wikipedia seems to imply that it was separated out from LPmud's built-in 'C interpreter' which sounds about right. - Source: Hacker News / almost 2 years ago
  • MUD in Pike
    In any other case, I dunno. I just like it cos it's basically LPC being used outside a MUD. Check out the site though, and maybe play with it too. pike.lysator.liu.se. Source: over 2 years ago
  • Hacker News top posts: May 21, 2022
    Pike Programming Language\ (45 comments). Source: almost 3 years ago
  • What's the most obscure ACTUAL programming language?
    Pike (Apparently some Opera browser proxy compression server was written in it.). Source: about 3 years ago

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 / over 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
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What are some alternatives?

When comparing Pike programming language and Lua, you can also consider the following products

D (Programming Language) - D is a language with C-like syntax and static typing.

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

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

Go Programming Language - Go, also called golang, is a programming language initially developed at Google in 2007 by Robert...

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

IronPython - Development