Tips To Learn Lua/Love2D

General discussion about LÖVE, Lua, game development, puns, and unicorns.
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TheScriptan
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Tips To Learn Lua/Love2D

Post by TheScriptan »

Hello everyone! I want to ask you guys one question. How I need to learn Lua/Love2D? Should I just learn basics of Lua and go right into the Love2D or should I learn Lua with some advanced functions like (metatables, arrays and more). I have experience in C++/C#, but I made a long break and I don't remember that much from these languages. I am really sorry that I am posting this, I know that there is tons of posts like this, but new post might be better for other people as well!:)
davisdude
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Re: Tips To Learn Lua/Love2D

Post by davisdude »

Definitely learn Lua first.
When I first started programming, I had very little understanding of Lua or LÖVE, and this made me form some very bad habits. I had no idea what I was doing, just "it worked in some other place, so it should work here."
But don't completely abandon LÖVE while learning Lua. I would integrate them, but focus more on the Lua aspect at first. Then, once you understand Lua well, focus more on LÖVE.
That's how I would do it if I could redo it.
GitHub | MLib - Math and shape intersections library | Walt - Animation library | Brady - Camera library with parallax scrolling | Vim-love-docs - Help files and syntax coloring for Vim
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TomcisUMB
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Re: Tips To Learn Lua/Love2D

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TheScriptan
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Re: Tips To Learn Lua/Love2D

Post by TheScriptan »

Thank you for the response, if I find a way, I will try to buy that book! :)
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OttoRobba
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Re: Tips To Learn Lua/Love2D

Post by OttoRobba »

Lua first, without question.
You can read the second edition of Programming in Lua here: http://www.lua.org/pil/contents.html

The first 7 chapters or so represent the core of what is done with Lua, covering functions, iterators, basics of tables, etc...
It should give you enough of a foundation to start testing and developing small things.

Also, Lua-Wiki has great resources (including benchmarks, tutorials and whatnot) and for me was a great way to learn a bit more.

This video is a nice intro to both Lua and LÖVE though:



PS: The "Lua for LÖVE" book is ok but you are probably better off either with the "Programming in Lua" or "Lua for Beginners". I like the former for being short and concise but the latter explains things at a slower pace and is preferred by some. :)
TheScriptan
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Re: Tips To Learn Lua/Love2D

Post by TheScriptan »

Thank you for this wide response! I will definitely watch this video and maybe find those books! :) Now I am learning fundamentals of lua from website! :)
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