Also, "The Evolution of Lua" — an interesting paper that shows how they came to this fast and somewhat elegant language: <a href="http://citeseerx.ist.psu.edu/viewdoc/download?doi=10.1.1.72.3859&#38;rep=rep1&#38;type=pdf" rel="nofollow">http://citeseerx.ist.psu.edu/viewdoc/download?doi=10.1.1.72....</a> [PDF]