A Calm, Developer-Focused Comparison

Python, Go, and Rust are three of the most influential languages in modern software engineering.
They represent three different philosophies:

• Python: simplicity & productivity
• Go: concurrency, cloud, and production reliability
• Rust: memory safety & high performance

This article provides a clear, concise, and practical Birdor-style comparison to help you decide which language fits your next project.

1. Design Philosophy: What Each Language Values

Python — Readable, expressive, productive

Python prioritizes human time over machine time.
The design is optimized for:

Lua is simple on the surface, but extremely powerful underneath.
This article explores metatables, metamethods, coroutines, advanced module design, and a set of practical patterns used in games, tools, and embedded systems.

All examples are fully runnable with standard Lua 5.3/5.4.

1. Metatables: Lua’s Custom Behavior Engine

Metatables let you customize how tables behave—similar to operator overloading, custom indexing, inheritance, and more.

1.1 Basic Example: __index Fallback

local defaults = {hp = 100, mp = 50}

local player = {}
setmetatable(player, {
  __index = defaults
})

print(player.hp)  -- 100
print(player.mp)  -- 50

Explanation:

Lua is a lightweight, embeddable scripting language widely used in game engines (Defold, Roblox, Corona), configuration systems, automation tools, and embedded platforms.

This article gives you a clean, beginner-friendly introduction with complete and runnable examples.

1. Setting Up and Running Lua

Install Lua

• macOS

brew install lua

• Linux (Ubuntu/Debian)

sudo apt-get install lua5.4

• Windows
  Download binaries or use Lua for Windows.

Run a Script

Write hello.lua:

print("Hello, Lua!")

Run:

Go (often called Golang) is a modern programming language designed at Google. It focuses on simplicity, performance, and built-in concurrency. If you want to build fast web services, CLIs, tools, or backend systems, Go is a great choice.

This article will walk you through Go from zero to a small, working example, with plenty of code you can copy, paste, and run.

1. What is Go and Why Use It?

Go is:

Python is one of the most widely used programming languages today — simple enough for beginners, powerful enough for companies like Google, Instagram, Spotify, and NASA.

This article provides a calm, friendly, and practical introduction to Python in the Birdor style: concise, structured, and useful.

What Is Python?

Python is a high-level, general-purpose programming language created by Guido van Rossum and released in 1991.
It was designed with a clear goal: