In this section, we will guide you through the process of setting up the Lua programming environment on your computer. By the end of this section, you will have Lua installed and be ready to write and execute Lua scripts.

1. Visit the Lua Website: Go to the official Lua website at www.lua.org.
2. Download Lua for Windows: Navigate to the "Download" section and download the latest version of Lua for Windows. You will typically find a link to a precompiled binary for Windows.

1. Using Homebrew: If you have Homebrew installed, you can easily install Lua by opening the Terminal and running:

   brew install lua
   

2. Manual Download: Alternatively, you can download the source code from the Lua website and compile it yourself.

1. Using Package Manager: Most Linux distributions have Lua in their package repositories. You can install it using your distribution's package manager. For example, on Ubuntu, you can run:

   sudo apt-get install lua5.3
   

2. Manual Download: You can also download the source code from the Lua website and compile it.

After installing Lua, you should verify that it is correctly installed and accessible from the command line.

1. Open Command Line Interface:

   • Windows: Open Command Prompt.
   • macOS: Open Terminal.
   • Linux: Open Terminal.

2. Check Lua Version: Type the following command and press Enter:

   lua -v
   

   You should see output similar to:

   Lua 5.3.5  Copyright (C) 1994-2018 Lua.org, PUC-Rio
   

While you can write Lua scripts in any text editor, using an editor with syntax highlighting and other features can make your coding experience more pleasant.

• Visual Studio Code: A powerful, free code editor with Lua extensions available.
• Sublime Text: A popular text editor with Lua syntax highlighting.
• Atom: Another free and open-source editor with Lua support.

1. Open Visual Studio Code.
2. Go to Extensions: Click on the Extensions icon in the Activity Bar on the side of the window.
3. Search for Lua: Type "Lua" in the search bar.
4. Install Lua Extension: Find an extension like "Lua" by sumneko and click "Install".

Now that you have Lua installed and a text editor set up, let's write a simple Lua script.

1. Open Your Text Editor.
2. Create a New File: Save it as hello.lua.
3. Write the Following Code:

   print("Hello, World!")
   

4. Save the File.

To run your Lua script, follow these steps:

1. Open Command Line Interface.
2. Navigate to the Directory: Use the cd command to navigate to the directory where you saved hello.lua. For example:

   cd path/to/your/script
   

3. Run the Script: Type the following command and press Enter:

   lua hello.lua
   

   You should see the output:

   Hello, World!
   

Congratulations! You have successfully set up the Lua programming environment on your computer, written your first Lua script, and executed it. In the next section, we will dive into the basic syntax and structure of Lua, which will form the foundation for your Lua programming journey.