41–50 of 148 posts
Please not scala! I prefer to have clojure for android. Scala is too complex, to ugly, and tries todo too much. Its also to heavy for android (it needs tons of libs to run).
Clojure would be too large a leap syntax-wise I think. Scala at the very least gives you both FP and OOP in the same language.
Um, people have already been able to use Scala to make Android applications. Just about anything that doesn't require dynamically generated JVM bytecode can manage, difficult and error-prone as it is. If we're talking about official support, then I'd rather Java 8 instead. And beefing up ART even more.
With that said, you can already get Java 8 lambdas in Android using the retrolambda project.
Make golang for Android and I'm yours.
Who's "we"? How about we ask Google to focus on things the vast majority of Android developers actually want? Java 7/8 comes to mind. Even if we're looking for just an alternative Android dev language Scala probably wouldn't even be in the top 10.
Earlier quoted context omitted.
Just because Scala has features that are tricky to get your head around if you're not familiar with functional programming, it doesn't mean it's complex to write software in. You can write Scala that's basically Java with less syntax if you want. I think that's what's so great about Scala, Python and other languages that mix OO and functional elements; you don't have to throw away Java and pick up Haskell, you can st…
It still doesnt change the fact that Scala, as a programming language, tries to incorporate too many concepts while still trying to be typesafe. This makes the language complex, and not an ideal candidate.
> Scala, as a programming language, tries to incorporate too many concepts
Too many concepts? Says who? How many concepts is too many? You don't have to use them all, and you can pick them up fairly easily as you go along; that's exactly how I learned the language.
> while still trying to be typesafe.
Not sure why that's contentious.
> This makes the language complex, and not an ideal candidate.
Says who? Why? Should all complex things be abandoned? I find the Android framework itself complex, personally, so should we throw that out?
This is the same Scala FUD that's always prevalent on Hacker News. "The language does too much." So what? You don't need to know all the concepts to be proficient. The language's beauty is that you can write simple code and pick up the concepts as you go along. Library modularity generally means that you don't need to get into the deep end of the language unless you want to. Scala is an expressive language. That's an intentional design decision that makes it flexible. It is not a drawback. It does not make it overcomplicated for a beginner.
Earlier quoted context omitted.
Just because Scala has features that are tricky to get your head around if you're not familiar with functional programming, it doesn't mean it's complex to write software in. You can write Scala that's basically Java with less syntax if you want. I think that's what's so great about Scala, Python and other languages that mix OO and functional elements; you don't have to throw away Java and pick up Haskell, you can st…
It still doesnt change the fact that Scala, as a programming language, tries to incorporate too many concepts while still trying to be typesafe. This makes the language complex, and not an ideal candidate.
That's not a fact -- its not even a fact claim -- its a value judgement. "Too many", except as sloppy terminology for exceeding an objective criteria, is inherently a value-judgement qualifier.
Earlier quoted context omitted.
Clojure would be too large a leap syntax-wise I think. Scala at the very least gives you both FP and OOP in the same language.
Perhaps, but some people have built pretty amazing abstractions in Clojure. I just found this tutorial, and was quite impressed: https://github.com/krisc/events/blob/master/tutorial.md
according to apple, swift uses ARC, not GC. https://developer.apple.com/library/prerelease/mac/documenta... How does Scala solve any of the problems with Java?
It has a generics system that makes a lot more sense (allowing covariant/contravariant types, rather than forcing use-site variance everywhere).
Case classes are wonderful for making simple data classes easy to read (and write).
Honestly Scala is all about solving the pain points with Java, so just look at anything that's been written about it. http://www.scala-lang.org/
I agree that Google should add more languages to android. And while Scala is a great language, it's very complex - so it won't benefit many of the less skilled users. A better language would be something with the simplicity and power of python, but with good performance.Groovy could be one such language.
It would be a mass experiment on Functional Programming acceptance ;)