RE: And news of a 5th Edition Lua Book

Thank you,

I can live with that answer, I couldn’t tell how significant the jump is.
But I will take your word for it and go with a 4^th edition now and

get the 5^th when that version is published.

From: Martin Angers
Sent: Thursday, January 7, 2021 5:47 PM
To: Lua mailing list
Subject: Re: And news of a 5th Edition Lua Book

> > We have taken an interest on Lua and want to purchase reading material to

> > get familiar with Lua. But I noticed that the 4th edition released in 2016

> > is made with 5.3 in mind. I wondered if there is a 5th edition in the

> > making that will soon be published, because with an untrained eye it seems

> > like the changes in 5.4 are quite significant

> >

> There was an edition for each of 5.0, 5.1, 5.2, and 5.3. I have no doubt

> that 5.4 is being worked on. IIRC, the book is self-published, so the

> Lua

> team has full control of when a new edition is released.

If I may add, I have the 4th edition and it is a _fantastic_ book. Not

only is it a fantastic _Lua_ book, it sets a high bar for any

_programming_ book, with relevant details and idioms, great non-trivial

examples and useful exercises, and in-depth coverage of every part of

the language. I will certainly get the 5.4 edition when/if it comes out,

but in the meantime note that much of the 4th edition still applies.

Incompatibilities are relatively small:

http://www.lua.org/manual/5.4/manual.html#8

The README lists the changes in 5.4 vs 5.3, IMO the biggest changes are

actually additions (<close>, <const>, warn):

http://www.lua.org/manual/5.4/readme.html#changes