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Hands-on Scala Programming

handsonscala.com

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Re: Hands-on Scala Programming

#21

Post by lihaoyi »

christiansakai wrote: post #18
cinnamonheart wrote: post #15

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Scala has a very wide surface area, and it can be as simple or complex as you want it to be. Written in a certain way, it's that different from writing Python 3 with PEP-484 type annotations. You can easily write Python-like code and just get things done. :) Concurrency-wise, you can implement any concurrency model you want on top of it, and, personally, I find immutability + Task-like implementations (Monix, ZIO, IO…

I think that's the main problem. Everyone writes Scala differently. In Go pretty much everything is quite similar. In JavaScript people also write things differently, like any other language really, but in Scala it is compounded. Is there a concrete example of the Python-like code vs the more complex ones? I appreciate the help. I'm thinking what language next should I pick up. It is either OCaml or Scala.

> Is there a concrete example of the Python-like code vs the more complex ones? I appreciate the help.

Haha this book is going to be 400 pages of concrete examples. It's not out yet, so you'll have to take my word for it for the next few weeks while the last round of reviews and editing are incorporated into the manuscript. If you're interested, put your email down and I'll let you know when it's ready!

Re: Hands-on Scala Programming

#22

Post by christiansakai »

lihaoyi wrote: post #21
christiansakai wrote: post #18

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I think that's the main problem. Everyone writes Scala differently. In Go pretty much everything is quite similar. In JavaScript people also write things differently, like any other language really, but in Scala it is compounded. Is there a concrete example of the Python-like code vs the more complex ones? I appreciate the help. I'm thinking what language next should I pick up. It is either OCaml or Scala.

> Is there a concrete example of the Python-like code vs the more complex ones? I appreciate the help. Haha this book is going to be 400 pages of concrete examples. It's not out yet, so you'll have to take my word for it for the next few weeks while the last round of reviews and editing are incorporated into the manuscript. If you're interested, put your email down and I'll let you know when it's ready!

Lol okay. Thanks for the awesome work! I'll put down my email there.

Re: Hands-on Scala Programming

#23

Post by petilon »

This book has a section on "Why Scala" but not on "Why Functional Programming". What is interesting about Scala, if you already know Java (and most CS grads already do), is that Scala is a functional language.

Anyone know of a good book or article that gives an overview of functional programming and answers the question of "Why Functional Programming", without going into details any one functional language?

Re: Hands-on Scala Programming

#24

Post by dr0l3 »

Some context for people who have limited knowledge of Scala.

Lihaoyi is one of the most prolific coder's, not just in Scala, but in any language. He looks like he is much to humble and modest to claim so himself, so I will do it for him.

Here is a by no means exhaustive list of projects

- A buildtool

- A bash replacement that speaks Scala

- A test framework

- A parsing library

- Ports of several python libraries in Scala

- Several libraries in the scala.js ecosystem

For the full list see https://github.com/lihaoyi?tab=repositories

Discussions on Scala on HN tends to contain a somewhat large volume of comments that explicitly or implicitly tries to communicate that Scala is a language that is much to complicated to really be productive in. Lihaoyi is a rather clear example of why this is not true. If this random internet citizens endorsement doesn't convince you maybe the book will :)

Re: Hands-on Scala Programming

#25

Post by totalperspectiv »

lihaoyi wrote: post #2

I didn't post this, but cool to see this up here! The full book is ~400 pages and will be released Summer 2020 (i.e. soon!). If you're interested in being notified when it comes out, there's a mailing list link on the page and I'll let you know when it's out. There will be both E-Books as well as paperbacks & hardcovers (assuming the supply-chains are still open in this COVID-19 global environment...) The first 5 cha…

Will the ebook be released before the physical version? This is EXACTLY the book on Scala I've wanted and am so excited to see this coming!

Re: Hands-on Scala Programming

#26

Post by lihaoyi »

totalperspectiv wrote: post #25
lihaoyi wrote: post #2

I didn't post this, but cool to see this up here! The full book is ~400 pages and will be released Summer 2020 (i.e. soon!). If you're interested in being notified when it comes out, there's a mailing list link on the page and I'll let you know when it's out. There will be both E-Books as well as paperbacks & hardcovers (assuming the supply-chains are still open in this COVID-19 global environment...) The first 5 cha…

Will the ebook be released before the physical version? This is EXACTLY the book on Scala I've wanted and am so excited to see this coming!

I can’t really promise the “before”, but the e-book will be released when the current round of review and edits is complete. The physical books released when I can figure out the logistics of printing and distribution

Re: Hands-on Scala Programming

#27

Post by _lbaq »

nicoburns wrote: post #8
christiansakai wrote: post #7

I work JavaScript/TypeScript day to day, but I like Python syntax and easiness but also like Go's concurrency. Having learned Haskell and Rust in the past, these days I appreciate simpler language. In what way does Scala have Python's convenience and Go's concurrency? Based on talking to a few people that used Scala in the past they said they wouldn't use it again and they said I probably wouldn't like it.

If you like simpler languages, you'll probably hate Scala. It's one of the most complex out there.

This is one of the most persistent myths about Scala, the language itself is far smaller than, for example, Java, and its standard library is very approachable.

Re: Hands-on Scala Programming

#28

Post by nafizh »

lihaoyi wrote: post #2

I didn't post this, but cool to see this up here! The full book is ~400 pages and will be released Summer 2020 (i.e. soon!). If you're interested in being notified when it comes out, there's a mailing list link on the page and I'll let you know when it's out. There will be both E-Books as well as paperbacks & hardcovers (assuming the supply-chains are still open in this COVID-19 global environment...) The first 5 cha…

Will this be a good book to learn your first functional language?

Re: Hands-on Scala Programming

#30

Post by forty »

lihaoyi wrote: post #2

I didn't post this, but cool to see this up here! The full book is ~400 pages and will be released Summer 2020 (i.e. soon!). If you're interested in being notified when it comes out, there's a mailing list link on the page and I'll let you know when it's out. There will be both E-Books as well as paperbacks & hardcovers (assuming the supply-chains are still open in this COVID-19 global environment...) The first 5 cha…

As someone who really like reading your blog articles, I'm super happy to see this :) I'll probably purchase it, as a part of my strategy to make my friends and colleagues start scala :) I'm looking forward to a "advanced scala programming" follow up ;)
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