What is the Best IDE or Editor for Developing in Lua?

Photo past Michael on Unsplash; logo by Lua (freely bachelor); text by Tremaine Eto.

When it comes to programming in a certain linguistic communication, 1 of the nigh of import decisions — besides simply starting — is the editor or the Integrated Evolution Environment (IDE) to use.

The choice isn't a ane-time thing where yous choose and are locked in, but choosing wisely can really lead to reduced headaches not only now but down the road. The one that you cull could cease upwardly beingness great for the language but not for other languages, or it could be great for a lot of languages, and and then you lot'll have to make the choice for each one you acquire and programme with.

If you're looking to hit the ground running with Lua specifically, though, and you want to save time finding out what a skilful IDE or editor would be, so hopefully this commodity will save yous some fourth dimension.

Here, I'll summarize some options as well as provide farther details and even some aggregated internet opinions from actual Lua users. Without farther ado, let'southward get started.

IntelliJ IDEA

IntelliJ Idea is consistently rated one of the best products in IDE-land; beginning of all, I suggest you check if the Community Version has what you demand if yous want a prissy-featured (nonetheless occasionally heavyweight) IDE choice.

Community edition of IntelliJ is complimentary
Ultimate edition of IntelliJ is not complimentary; there is a complimentary xxx-day trial, simply otherwise it's $149 per year (for individuals) with $119 for a second yr and $89 for the third and on
EmmyLua plugin
Syntax highlighting (highlight global value, highlight local/param value, highlight up value)
Code completion
Keyword completion
Basic completion
Type inferred based completion
Debugger — Attach Debugger (Windows merely) and Remote Debugger(Mobdebug.lua)

I use IntelliJ IDEA (with Lua plugin) for large projects, when I need maximum productivity and long-term code quality.

— /u/PhilipRoman on /r/Lua

Without a uncertainty, IntelliJ or Webstorm with EmmyLua plugin. Been using this for Lua development for four years and still regularly attempt others (Sublime, VS Code etc) only keep coming back to this.

— /u/bnlv on /r/Lua

I used to exist a sublime guy. Easy build organisation config, a lot of nice editing features, some of information technology unique to sublime. Good stuff. But I could never become autocompletion and linters work with it flawlessly.

Nowadays I use Rider (IntelliJ IDE) which is unremarkably for C# that I need for work with Unity anyway. Together with the EmmyLua plugin which adds the option to document your unabridged Lua lawmaking with types and all the skilful stuff which will prove up for car completion and can fifty-fifty enforce type safety.

A God given thing for larger projects. I am truly in love with information technology.

— /u/Erasio on /r/love2D

Vim

For Lua, many users propose that y'all don't need much more a text editor of choice. For some core group of users, Vim fits that bill.

Free
lua.vim available here
GitHub here

But for smaller free-time projects, I employ any text editor (mainly nano, merely as well vim) + luacheck + makefiles to automate testing, packaging, deployment + tmux to have multiple panes (and i session per project, so I tin can kickoff working where I left off). These tools tin be hands integrated with each other, for case yous can configure nano to telephone call luacheck and brandish the results.

Oh, and by the way, I normally run all this on Windows using WSL.

— /u/PhilipRoman on /r/Lua

In that location are multiple plugins for lsp on vim/neovim already, vim-lsp and LanguageClient-Neovim. In that location'southward also a PR for neovim with semi functional lsp, from what I can tell (haven't used that one).

If you go with vim, I recommend vim-lsp, it's the cleanest written and I like how it loads functions (piece of cake to filibuster loading).

— /u/mtszyk on /r/Lua

This is probably the wrong answer, unless you lot're really open to a long-term, loftier powered solution, but someone's gotta mention Vim. It turns the act of editing text itself into its own language y'all can go fluent in. Plus it has enough of plugins available to suit whatever purposes you might have.

But like I said, it's a long-term, high powered solution. Y'all kinda take to become familiar with Vim for its own sake earlier you tin can effectively customize its functionality with its myriad settings & plugins.

For an case of how crazy it can get, here's my "vimrc" file, the place I put all my customized settings (and list my plugins, cheers to a plugin that lets me list them that way in order to automatically download & install them from the internet). Information technology's easier to navigate in vim itself, those box-character headers have "fold markers" in them for collapsing sections of text.

— /u/atimholt on /r/Lua

Emacs

Of course, you lot tin't mention Vim without mentioning Emacs.

Courtesy Wikipedia, *Creative Eatables* *Attribution-ShareAlike four.0* .

Gratuitous
Lua-way on GitHub pages : "lua-mode supports automatical code indentation and sending of lines/regions/files to a Lua interpreter. An interpreter (see variable lua-default-application) will be started if you try to ship some code and none is running. You lot can use the process-buffer (named after the application y'all chose) as if it were an interactive shell."
Lua-manner on GitHub

Since in that location is an LSP for Lua, you should be able to utilise near any editor that supports that (mostly…) Atom, VS Code, Emacs, (Neo)VIM, etc. They'll all exist limited by what the specific server for Lua supports. VIM is my preferred editor, simply takes a fair amount to get set up and maintain. I tend to non mind a couple hours every so often to maintain my editor config now that I have it working well for my needs.

— /u/losinggeneration on /r/Lua

I use Emacs with lua-way and lsp-mode for navigation and other smarts. For the lsp backend I use Emmy with the LÖVE API back up.

— /u/donio on /r/love2D

Visual Studio Lawmaking aka VSCode

VSCode is one of the virtually versatile and complimentary IDEs on the market, and its extension game is getting better by the day. For Lua, it is more than functional given the right extensions.

Courtesy Lua past sumneko on Visual Studio Marketplace.

vscode-lua extension here; contains:
Autocompletion
Go to Symbol
Mistake checking
Linting
Formatting
lua-language-server hither; contains:
Goto Definition
Detect All References
Hover
Diagnostics
Rename
Auto Completion
IntelliSense
…and more

vscode for me. In that location are fantastic Lua extensions for it.

— /u/ShenroEU on /r/Lua

I'k using LRDB vscode extension — https://github.com/satoren/vscode-lrdb

— /u/ArnCarver on /r/Lua

The [extensions] I am using are: vscode-lua: intellisense and linting for Lua; Code Outline: very skillful extension for outlining; Bookmars: well…bookmarks :)

— /u/DavidDrake_ on /r/Lua

Visual Studio Code, with the emmylua extension. I'm actually not using emmylua for the suggestions but because it'south the merely lua debugger I've found that works properly. Although the suggestions are a nice additions.

— /u/nikeinikei on /r/love2D

vscode with extensions:

sumneko.lua — for language server
tomblind.local-lua-debugger-vscode — best debugger e'er
trixnz.vscode-lua — for linting with luacheck

— /u/scoobyff666 on /r/love2D

ZeroBrane Studio

By Paul Kulchenko, ZeroBrane is billed as a "Lua IDE, written in Lua" and "simple and lightweight". It's gratis to download, but they suggest a donation.

According to ZeroBrane Studio's site, the features include the following:

Lua IDE, written in Lua; simple and lightweight
Syntax highlighting and code folding
Auto-completion for functions and keywords
Interactive console to directly exam lawmaking snippets with local and remote execution
Integrated debugger (with support for local and remote debugging)
Integrated static analyzer
Unique live coding feature (demo)
Love2d auto-completion, debugging, and alive coding
Moai integration, debugging, and alive coding
Gideros Mobile debugging and live coding
OpenResty/Nginx Lua script debugging
Adobe Lightroom Lua plugin debugging
On-device debugging for Corona SDK and Gideros Mobile
Integrated markdown formatting for providing lessons and instructions
No install required; runs from whatsoever binder
Open-source (MIT license)
Windows, Mac, and Linux

ZeroBrane is 1 I tend to use for learning and all sorts. Although I use NP++ or sublime because I work with Garrysmod.

Although y'all do have to save the files before running them.

If anyone knows of an IDE that works similar a text editor that doesn't crave you to relieve to activly test modifications, please permit me know.

— /u/SimonJ57 on /r/Lua

I tend to favor the use of ZeroBrane Studio, Kate (with the File system browser, Kate Snippets, and Terminal tool view extensions), and GVim. At that place's also LDT for Eclipse, but I'm non sure if I'd really recommend that that (peculiarly to a new developer.) As others have said, you'll do just fine in almost cases with any editor with syntax highlighting. Especially just starting out, don't get too carried away with thinking that you demand an IDE.

— /u/losinggeneration on /r/Lua

I've really simply used ZeroBrane Studio, but it seems to hit all the important stuff:

- Acceptable editor (project view, to jump definition)

- Out of the box support (including debugging) for different Lua runtimes (51, 52, 53, LuaJit, LOVE, etc)

- Static assay

- Zilch setup

While cool I've never actually used the live coding or Markdown comment back up.

— /u/Buzzard on /r/Lua

I don't know if it's the best, but I liked ZeroBrane Studio.

Why? It did everything I needed it to with virtually no setup/messing around.

— /u/mechanicalgod on /r/Lua

So far I but know of one editor/IDE that was made specifically for lua, which is ZeroBrane. A list of its features tin can be found on the linked website. Other than that, there isn't much out there, more often than not multi-purpose editors that also do lua to a certain extent. As with virtually languages though, IDE features are simply at that place to make life easier, and an editor similar notepad is more than enough to write good lua code.

— DarkWiiPlayer on Stack Overflow

You may want to try ZeroBrane Studio IDE, which includes a remote debugger and integrates with Love2d, Moai, and other Lua engines.

Sublime Text

Sublime Text is a snappy and lightweight text editor as option that's quick to download and simple to utilise.

If you're looking for Sublime prepare for LÖVE, then click hither.

Sublime Text with the LuaExtended package is awesome.

— /u/KingofGamesYami on /r/Lua

I apply sublime text three for pretty much everything involving code. I like the themes and bundle organisation I find it really user-friendly!

— /u/CornichonCostaud on /r/love2D

Also using Sublime Text. I've got SublimeLinter and luacheck set upwardly and then my code doesn't rot. I think I've got a regular Lua plugin (unless there'southward a Love-specific ane) for syntax highlighting and whatnot. And a bunch of other plugins considering I use Sublime for my day job as well (C, Python, etc.).

— /u/botsniper on /r/love2D

Warning: bias, opinion, and anecdotes beyond this point…

On the spectrum from basic editor to full-blown IDE I adopt an editor merely with a very basic syntax highlighting and syntax checking (luacheck for lua) but to grab those annoying little slip-ups like forgetting an "finish" keyword and having to go dorsum and track it down.

All the other "fluff" that IDEs offer seem nice-to-have at first simply normally come at the cost of a more than swollen, slower-running editor. Or even worse– increasing your reliance on the editor equally a crutch for doing basic tasks.

I have worked with people that employ big IDE'southward and when something goes incorrect and the editor can't help them they are helpless. As an aside, those besides tend to exist the kind of people that volition bug me to run a few git commands for them to bail them out of a gummy state of affairs the editor's git gui tin can't handle.

— /u/8E4F787A43D3807E9EA2 on /r/Lua

Notepad++

Notepad++ is a nice Windows text editor that many people are already familiar with, and it'south a very bones solution for Lua programming; having said that, it'south not to be counted out depending on i's specific project or purpose.

Courtesy Wikimedia Eatables, GNU General Public License.

Notepad++……….. Or the standard text editor on your Linux.

— /u/Tritonio on /r/Lua

notepad++ will be more than ok for what you demand to do… If you are on linux, notepadqq, or geany, or atom (atom being the most circuitous on in this small list).

— /u/ghms on /r/Lua

Lua, like all practiced programming languages, doesn't necessarily require anything other a text editor, like Notepad++, Emacs, Vim (what I use), etc.

— /u/marekkpie on /r/Lua

Atom

Atom is still another simple text editor like Sublime Text, and it may fit your fancy.

The below quote summarizes it working with Lua pretty succintly:

Atom is open source, and has some nice Lua packages.

— /u/RobLoach on /r/Lua

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Best Lua Ide Compiler to Download