Lua use case questions

[Kevin Wang <kevin@...>]

Hi everyone,

I am just getting into Lua to research it as a possible language for a 
grant we are working on, and was wondering if anyone could answer some 
questions for a beginner :)

We write software and hardware for neuroscience experiments, and are 
developing a new tool. Our ultimate goal in a nutshell is to have users 
be able to write and run scripts on their computers, but only as 
simulation and without low latency. The idea is that once they are 
satisfied with fine tuning their control script and parameters, they can 
then "upload" it to our device (a soft-core processor on an FPGA), in 
which case our backend can execute their control script with direct 
access to the data (going through the FPGA) for extremely low latency.

So my questions are:

1. Is Lua syntax easy to learn, especially for users that primarily code 
analysis scripts in Matlab or Python? (Even if it is not, if Lua turns 
out to meet our tech requirements, they'll just have to learn Lua 
anyways. Just a good thing for me to keep in mind)

2. Is this a fair use case for Lua? I know that Lua is small enough to 
use on embedded devices, what about an FPGA?

3. Does anyone here have a similar use case that I could talk to, or see 
any similar examples for?

4. If not Lua, any other recommendations?

Many many thanks,

Kevin