[$] Lua and Python

From a high-level perspective, Lua and Python are similar languages; both are "scripting" languages that are compiled into bytecode instructions that run on avirtual machine. But the focus of Lua has generally been toward embeddingthe language into some larger application or system, rather than as an alternative for, say, Python, Perl, or Ruby as a general-purposelanguage. That is not to say that Lua is not capable of handling any ofthe tasks those other languages do, but that it has not really been thetarget, seemingly. Some recent discussions in the Lua community haveexplored possible changes in that regard, particularly around the idea ofproviding a larger, richer standard library.