In C, most esp incarnations can be used with the Arduino IDE.

https://learn.sparkfun.com/tutorials/esp8266-thing-hookup-gu...

For Lua, nodeMCU's got your back.

http://nodemcu.com/index_en.html

This is a pretty good way to go. I wrote the software for a 40ish node lighting control network built with NodeMCU boards. The software was C++ via the Arduino IDE, it all worked out pretty well.

Checkout NodeMCU. You can program in lua. There are some downsides, but overall my experience with NodeMCU is fairly good. Just like everyone else, I've been using them to upload sensor data (humidity, temperature, strain).

Documentation: https://nodemcu.readthedocs.io/en/dev/ esp8266 flash utility: https://github.com/nodemcu/nodemcu-flasher IDE: http://esp8266.ru/esplorer/

Tips: The cpu is responsible for everything, so if you crash it or get it into a loop the serial output will stop. Be careful with what you put in the init.lua, since it will run on startup. If you do get stuck in a boot loop simply hold down the button while pressing reset, and it will get into a recovery mode. Then use the nodemcu-flasher to reflash the chip.

I would recommend micropython on the esp8266 as then you can use the same code that was running on the pi with a few tweeks. https://github.com/micropython/micropython/tree/master/esp82... http://docs.micropython.org/en/latest/esp8266/