Roberto Ierusalimschy is a Brazilian computer scientist and lead architect of Lua. His work on creating a simple, embeddable scripting language inadvertently created the standard for game scripting worldwide.
Background
Ierusalimschy is a professor at the Pontifical Catholic University of Rio de Janeiro (PUC-Rio) in Brazil. He created Lua along with Luiz Henrique de Figueiredo and Waldemar Celes in 1993.
Creating Lua
Lua emerged from practical needs. Brazil’s import restrictions made commercial software expensive, motivating the development of local tools. Lua was designed to be embedded in applications, providing a lightweight scripting layer.
Design Philosophy
Ierusalimschy’s approach to Lua emphasizes:
- Simplicity: Few concepts that combine powerfully
- Portability: Runs anywhere with a C compiler
- Embeddability: Easy to integrate into host applications
- Efficiency: Small footprint and fast execution
”Programming in Lua”
Ierusalimschy wrote “Programming in Lua,” the authoritative book on the language. The book is known for its clarity and is available free online for older editions.
Continued Development
Ierusalimschy continues leading Lua’s development, maintaining its simplicity while carefully adding features like coroutines and JIT compilation (via LuaJIT). Lua’s stability and backward compatibility reflect his conservative approach to language evolution.