Lua

There's a lot of programming languages available to the established or aspiring design, each with their own strengths and weaknesses, but even in such a crowded marketplace, Lua manages to find a niche all its own. Built from a simple 20,000 lines of C code, it's a remarkably nimble approach to programming, but it provides a remarkable level of versatility for a language contained in such a tight package. This size works to its advantage. The interpreter, complete with all base languages, weighs in at less than 100 KB, and that allows it to deliver results on even complex piles of code with admirable speed. The fact that it's built off of C lends it another important advantage. For areas where Lua comes up short, such as math and string libraries, developers can easily patch in C code and expect it to reliably work to expectations. Any piece of hardware that can run a C compiler can run Lua, so developers can port their scripts over to a diverse range of sources ranging from Windows and Linux systems to mobile devices to embedded microprocessors. Users have substantive control over restrictions. You can control max limitations for memory and CPU usage, making it a great fit when trying to write script that's compatible with phone environments and outdated computers, and restricting access to library functions is equally as simple. The ability to embed Lua further increases its functionality. Lua scripts can be integrated into programs written in both C and C++ as well as foreign languages like Java, C#, Perl, and Ruby. Seeing as it's built off the C framework, Lua's syntax will be familiar to most people who have a modest understanding of core programming, but measures were taken to ensure Lua implements a simple approach to coding. Lua found its genesis in Pascal, a language explicitly designed for teaching, and the results are a language that's eminently usable both by experienced programmers and those just starting to learn the ropes. Coding is often described as translating human language into terms that a computer can understand, and Lua does a great job of bridging the gap by creating a sensible syntax that isn't overloaded with high concepts and esoteric structure. Rather than focusing on a single variety of programming, Lua strives to serve a wide number of purposes, making it akin to the Swiss army knife of programming languages. It handles this through the use of "meta-mechanisms". Instead of including this wide range of functions directly into the language, users can plug these meta-mechanisms into their code, offering a high degree of segregation and letting programmers focus on the specific tools they need for a project rather than learning a whole new way of coding. Lua supports data driven programming, object oriented programming, procedural programming, functional programming, and data description.