Lua is a powerful, light-weight programming language designed for extending applications. It is also frequently used as a general-purpose, stand-alone language. It combines simple procedural syntax (similar to Pascal) with powerful data descr iption constructs based on associative arrays and extensible semantics. Lua is dynamically typed, interpreted from bytecodes, and has automatic memory management with garbage collection, making it ideal for configuration, scr ipting, and rapid prototyping.