Lua vs QuickJS

Overview

Lua

Stacks2.5K

Followers1.0K

Votes180

GitHub Stars1.5K

Forks452

QuickJS

Stacks4

Followers12

Votes0

Lua vs QuickJS: What are the differences?

Introduction:

In this article, we will compare and highlight the key differences between Lua and QuickJS.

Language Design and Purpose: Lua is a lightweight and extensible scripting language designed for embedding into applications. It focuses on simplicity, portability, and ease of integration. On the other hand, QuickJS is a fast and lightweight JavaScript interpreter that aims to be compatible with the ECMAScript 2020 specification.
Syntax: Lua uses a simple and minimalistic syntax with a consistent use of tables for data representation. It uses "end" to close blocks and does not require semicolons at the end of the statement. In contrast, QuickJS follows the syntax of JavaScript, which can be more complex with a variety of language constructs and punctuation marks.
Memory Management: Lua uses automatic garbage collection to manage memory, which simplifies memory allocation and deallocation for the programmer. QuickJS, on the other hand, uses a garbage collector that combines reference counting with cycle detection, which can be more efficient for managing memory but may require a bit more complex memory management from the developer's perspective.
Standard Libraries: Lua comes with a minimal set of standard libraries that cover basic data structures, file I/O, and some utilities. It includes a small and efficient implementation that is easily extensible. QuickJS, on the other hand, provides a more extensive set of standard libraries that comply with the ECMAScript specification, offering a wide array of utility functions and data structures built-in.
Embeddability: Lua is known for its easy embeddability, with a simple C API that allows developers to integrate Lua into their applications seamlessly. It provides a lightweight interpreter that is portable and efficient in resource consumption. QuickJS also offers embeddability, with a C API that supports embedding the interpreter into other applications, making it easy to use JavaScript as a scripting language in various projects.
Community and Ecosystem: Lua has been around for a long time and has a vibrant community with a wealth of libraries and resources available. It is widely used in game development, embedded systems, and other domains. QuickJS is a more recent project with a smaller community and ecosystem compared to Lua, but it benefits from compatibility with the large JavaScript ecosystem, including popular frameworks and libraries.

In summary, Lua and QuickJS differ in their language design and purpose, syntax, memory management, standard libraries, embeddability, and community/ecosystem. Lua focuses on simplicity, embedding, and minimalism, while QuickJS aims to provide a lightweight and efficient JavaScript interpreter that is compatible with the ECMAScript specification.

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Advice on Lua, QuickJS

Gamerians

May 21, 2020

Needs adviceon

Lua

Python

Java

I am trying to make Roblox game which requires Lua. I quite don't want to go with Lua just because other tools just might let me do more projects later on. I heard that Python is most similar to Lua, but I am still not sure which tool to use. Java, I think it will help me with many stuff later on for websites, projects, and more!

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Comments

Detailed Comparison

Lua	QuickJS
Lua combines simple procedural syntax with powerful data description constructs based on associative arrays and extensible semantics. Lua is dynamically typed, runs by interpreting bytecode for a register-based virtual machine, and has automatic memory management with incremental garbage collection, making it ideal for configuration, scripting, and rapid prototyping.	It supports the ES2019 specification including modules, asynchronous generators and proxies. It optionally supports mathematical extensions such as big integers (BigInt), big floating point numbers (BigFloat) and operator overloading.
-	Small and easily embeddable; no external dependency; Fast interpreter
Statistics
GitHub Stars 1.5K	GitHub Stars -
GitHub Forks 452	GitHub Forks -
Stacks 2.5K	Stacks 4
Followers 1.0K	Followers 12
Votes 180	Votes 0
Pros & Cons
Pros 41 Fast learning curve 26 Very easy to embed in C programs 26 Efficient memory usage 20 Open source 19 Good for game scripting Cons 4 Nooby 2 Not widespread 1 D 0 Python	No community feedback yet
Integrations
No integrations available	Linux JavaScript macOS

What are some alternatives to Lua, QuickJS?

JavaScript

JavaScript is most known as the scripting language for Web pages, but used in many non-browser environments as well such as node.js or Apache CouchDB. It is a prototype-based, multi-paradigm scripting language that is dynamic,and supports object-oriented, imperative, and functional programming styles.

Python

Python is a general purpose programming language created by Guido Van Rossum. Python is most praised for its elegant syntax and readable code, if you are just beginning your programming career python suits you best.

PHP

Fast, flexible and pragmatic, PHP powers everything from your blog to the most popular websites in the world.

Ruby

Ruby is a language of careful balance. Its creator, Yukihiro “Matz” Matsumoto, blended parts of his favorite languages (Perl, Smalltalk, Eiffel, Ada, and Lisp) to form a new language that balanced functional programming with imperative programming.

Java

Java is a programming language and computing platform first released by Sun Microsystems in 1995. There are lots of applications and websites that will not work unless you have Java installed, and more are created every day. Java is fast, secure, and reliable. From laptops to datacenters, game consoles to scientific supercomputers, cell phones to the Internet, Java is everywhere!

Golang

Go is expressive, concise, clean, and efficient. Its concurrency mechanisms make it easy to write programs that get the most out of multicore and networked machines, while its novel type system enables flexible and modular program construction. Go compiles quickly to machine code yet has the convenience of garbage collection and the power of run-time reflection. It's a fast, statically typed, compiled language that feels like a dynamically typed, interpreted language.

HTML5

HTML5 is a core technology markup language of the Internet used for structuring and presenting content for the World Wide Web. As of October 2014 this is the final and complete fifth revision of the HTML standard of the World Wide Web Consortium (W3C). The previous version, HTML 4, was standardised in 1997.

C#

C# (pronounced "See Sharp") is a simple, modern, object-oriented, and type-safe programming language. C# has its roots in the C family of languages and will be immediately familiar to C, C++, Java, and JavaScript programmers.

Scala

Scala is an acronym for “Scalable Language”. This means that Scala grows with you. You can play with it by typing one-line expressions and observing the results. But you can also rely on it for large mission critical systems, as many companies, including Twitter, LinkedIn, or Intel do. To some, Scala feels like a scripting language. Its syntax is concise and low ceremony; its types get out of the way because the compiler can infer them.

Elixir

Elixir leverages the Erlang VM, known for running low-latency, distributed and fault-tolerant systems, while also being successfully used in web development and the embedded software domain.

Related Comparisons

Lua vs QuickJS: What are the differences?

Introduction:

In this article, we will compare and highlight the key differences between Lua and QuickJS.

Language Design and Purpose: Lua is a lightweight and extensible scripting language designed for embedding into applications. It focuses on simplicity, portability, and ease of integration. On the other hand, QuickJS is a fast and lightweight JavaScript interpreter that aims to be compatible with the ECMAScript 2020 specification.
Syntax: Lua uses a simple and minimalistic syntax with a consistent use of tables for data representation. It uses "end" to close blocks and does not require semicolons at the end of the statement. In contrast, QuickJS follows the syntax of JavaScript, which can be more complex with a variety of language constructs and punctuation marks.
Memory Management: Lua uses automatic garbage collection to manage memory, which simplifies memory allocation and deallocation for the programmer. QuickJS, on the other hand, uses a garbage collector that combines reference counting with cycle detection, which can be more efficient for managing memory but may require a bit more complex memory management from the developer's perspective.
Standard Libraries: Lua comes with a minimal set of standard libraries that cover basic data structures, file I/O, and some utilities. It includes a small and efficient implementation that is easily extensible. QuickJS, on the other hand, provides a more extensive set of standard libraries that comply with the ECMAScript specification, offering a wide array of utility functions and data structures built-in.
Embeddability: Lua is known for its easy embeddability, with a simple C API that allows developers to integrate Lua into their applications seamlessly. It provides a lightweight interpreter that is portable and efficient in resource consumption. QuickJS also offers embeddability, with a C API that supports embedding the interpreter into other applications, making it easy to use JavaScript as a scripting language in various projects.
Community and Ecosystem: Lua has been around for a long time and has a vibrant community with a wealth of libraries and resources available. It is widely used in game development, embedded systems, and other domains. QuickJS is a more recent project with a smaller community and ecosystem compared to Lua, but it benefits from compatibility with the large JavaScript ecosystem, including popular frameworks and libraries.

Lua vs QuickJS

Overview

Lua vs QuickJS: What are the differences?