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Why Learn Scala in 2013?

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Re: Why Learn Scala in 2013?

#3

Post by virmundi »

I've looked at Scala. I think it's really neat. I think it is Perl. And that's what scares me. You can solve the problem in many ways, each one getting more functional and abstract. Eventual so abstract that you can't really tell what going on.

Another issue is the fact that it interacts with the JVM. Short answer, it seems nice, but if you're functional, you can't really use the 3rd party libs because you can't be sure they will play well in the functional world. Long answer is here. http://talesfromannoyance.blogspot.com/2012/05/why-im-lookin....

I'll probably double back to Scala at some point, but I think a language off the JVM is a better option. Or at lease one that is so odd to the JVM that most people will only look for libs written in that language. For that I assume Clojure is a better choice.

Re: Why Learn Scala in 2013?

#6

Post by CCs »

virmundi wrote: post #3

I've looked at Scala. I think it's really neat. I think it is Perl. And that's what scares me. You can solve the problem in many ways, each one getting more functional and abstract. Eventual so abstract that you can't really tell what going on. Another issue is the fact that it interacts with the JVM. Short answer, it seems nice, but if you're functional, you can't really use the 3rd party libs because you can't be s…

There's no limitation: you can use any 3rd party Java library from Scala. We do it in production for years, works perfectly.

It's true that Scala DSL is scary. As far I know soon (version 2.10?) you will have to add a compiler flag to enable some scary stuff. They are useful for library developers, but not too great for everyday apps.

Also you don't have to use the functional part. I saw plenty of code that looked like a nicer Java. You get less boilerplate and better performance - see http://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=2615096

Edit: The article you linked says: "... one call to some open source project that didn't worry enough about threading to even warn the user that the object is not thread safe." This would fail in any language, including Java.

Re: Why Learn Scala in 2013?

#8

Post by jballanc »

When I first encountered Scala, my impression was that this would be Java 2.0. Two plus years later, that's still my impression. What this means to me is that if you are looking for a new work-a-day language (i.e. the language that you use to pay the bills; the ones that appear in the Tiobe top 25), then Scala is probably worth a look.

However, if you are happy with your current working language and are, instead, looking for a language that will let you grow as a programmer...well, for that sort of approach I'm not so sure Scala is the best you can do. This is just anecdotal, but I've noticed a trend where someone does something cool in Haskell, and then says "oh yeah, and with a few adjustments and given a couple of caveats, you can do it in Scala like so...". In other words, it seems to me that more of the innovation is happening in other languages and then its being brought back into Scala as almost an afterthought.

I have seen some hints that this is changing, and so I definitely won't write-off Scala. At the same time, there are an awful lot of interesting languages out there if you're looking to grow as a programmer...

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