Editing Lua (section)

== Applications ==
{{main|List of applications using Lua}}

In [[video game development]], Lua is widely used as a [[scripting language]], mainly due to its perceived easiness to embed, fast execution, and short [[learning curve]].<ref>{{cite web|url=https://stackoverflow.com/questions/38338/why-is-lua-considered-a-game-language |title=Why is Lua considered a game language? |website=Stack Overflow |access-date=2017-04-22 |url-status=dead |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20130820131611/http://stackoverflow.com/questions/38338/why-is-lua-considered-a-game-language |archive-date=20 August 2013}}</ref> Notable games which use Lua include ''[[Roblox]]'',<ref>{{Cite web|title=Why Lua''u''?|url=https://luau-lang.org/why.html|access-date=2022-03-23|website=Luau|language=en-US}}</ref> ''[[Garry's Mod]]'', '' [[World of Warcraft]]'', ''[[Payday 2]]'',  ''[[Phantasy Star Online 2]]'', ''[[Dota 2]]'', ''[[Crysis (video game)|Crysis]]'',<ref>{{cite web |url=https://crymp.net/thread?id=347 |title=Introduction to Crysis server-side modding |access-date=23 March 2022}}</ref> and many others. Some games that do not natively support Lua programming or scripting, have this function added by mods, as ComputerCraft does for ''[[Minecraft]]''. Also, Lua is used in non-video game software, such as [[Adobe Lightroom]], [[Moho (software)|Moho]], [[iClone]], [[Aerospike (database)|Aerospike]], and some system software in [[FreeBSD]] and [[NetBSD]], and used as a template scripting language on [[MediaWiki]] using the Scribunto extension.<ref>{{Cite web|title=Lua Functions|url=https://wow.gamepedia.com/Lua_functions|access-date=2021-03-01|website=wow.gamepedia.com|language=en-US}}</ref>

In 2003, a poll conducted by GameDev.net showed Lua was the most popular scripting language for game programming.<ref>{{cite web|url=https://gamedev.net/gdpolls/viewpoll.asp?ID=163 |title=Poll Results |access-date=2017-04-22 |url-status=bot: unknown |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20031207171619/http://gamedev.net/gdpolls/viewpoll.asp?ID=163 |archive-date=7 December 2003}}</ref> On 12 January 2012, Lua was announced as a winner of the Front Line Award 2011 from the magazine ''[[Game Developer (magazine)|Game Developer]]'' in the category Programming Tools.<ref>{{cite web|url=http://www.gdmag.com/blog/2012/01/front-line-award-winners.php |title=Front Line Award Winners Announced |access-date=2017-04-22 |url-status=dead |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20130615013638/http://www.gdmag.com/blog/2012/01/front-line-award-winners.php |archive-date=15 June 2013}}</ref>

Many non-game applications also use Lua for extensibility, such as [[LuaTeX]], an implementation of the [[TeX]] type-setting language, [[Redis]], a [[key-value database]], [[ScyllaDB]], a [[wide-column store]], [[Neovim]], a text editor, [[Nginx]], a [[web server]], [[Wireshark]], a network packet analyzer and [[Pure Data]], a visual audio programming language (through the [https://agraef.github.io/pd-lua/ pdlua] extension).