Is Lua right for me?

[Chris Losinger <closinger@...>]

	Hi,

	I'm looking for a scripting language to embed in an interactive
image manipulation package. I've looked at the Lua FAQ, the intro pages and
scanned a few months worth of this list. But, i think i need to ask the
list, to get the answers i need...

	The language i use needs to be:

	a) usable for people who aren't programmers (think engineering
students). Lua looks like it might be ok here.

	b) fast enough to do simple arithmetic on enourmous data sets (2d
image manipulation). it doesn't have to be real-time, but it shouldn't be in
elephant time either. any opinions?

	c) limitable. i need to be able to limit the language to keep users
from going outside the scope of the host application. can this be done with
Lua?

	d) usable with huge data sets. i read a few messages about Lua's
garbage collection system and images that give me doubts.. i want to create
"image" objects that allocate data with Win32's GlobalAlloc function, and i
need this memory to be released when the object goes out of scope. is Lua's
GC going to complicate this?

	i'd appreciate any info i can get...

	-c