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Scala.js no longer experimental

scala-lang.org

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Re: Scala.js no longer experimental

#41

Post by colin_jack »

mercurial wrote: post #16
wildthing84 wrote: post #11

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I'm concerned that using Scala.JS will complicate cause there's a lot more to Web Apps than just JavaScript. And JavaScript works very well in the context of HTML etc. Plus JQuery - I don't see a point in doing it the Scala way when JQuery and other libraries are just as efficent and I will likely use them anyway. Using Scala adds a 4th language cause the JS is inevitable.

> Plus JQuery - I don't see a point in doing it the Scala way when JQuery and other libraries are just as efficent and I will likely use them anyway. I won't speak about Scala in particular, but using a statically typed language with a strong type system is much more about safety than about "efficiency" (whatever this means). Javascript is brittle, and the idea of doing any kind of refactoring on a large JS codebase…

I actually don't think its so much about code safety either. To me the real top advantage of static typing is that it leaves the code self-documenting, easier to navigate around, easier to refactor as you say...etc.

Having said that the flexibility JS gives you is huge, I've played with Scala and its at the opposite end of the scale. I don't mind that but I am more interested in things like gradual typing being added JS, even if that just ended up being checked at run-time, because it gives you some of the big advantages of static typing without sacrificing all the of the dynamic goodness.

Re: Scala.js no longer experimental

#42

Post by lmm »

Peaker wrote: post #29
vander_elst wrote: post #8

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I personally hope that within some time this could be adopted on the large scale, I really feel the need for a statically typed language for the front end. However, the biggest obstacle I can see is the learning curve.

If you care about the learning curve: Take a look at https://github.com/sinelaw/inferno It aims to add a type system to a subset of Javascript. It's not quite ready yet, but it already shows quite some promise. There's also Flow and Google's Closure/et-al, but they are more lenient and accept more valid and invalid programs.

If I just want types+js, Typescript is already pretty mature and widely supported (e.g. good integration with node, support for lots of popular libraries via DefinitelyTyped). What does this inferno offer over that?

Re: Scala.js no longer experimental

#43

Post by SanderMak »

desdiv wrote: post #36
noelwelsh wrote: post #26

I was very sceptical of Scala.js, but decided to use it in a low risk project ( http://github.com/underscoreio/doodle ) to render to the HTML canvas and I am shocked at how well it works. The community is moving very quickly as well, and many advanced Scala projects have had the necessary tweaks applied to run in Scala.js. Looking at broader trends, there is a clear movement towards static typing on the Javascript VM…

Google is developing SoundScript Aren't they doing Dart as well? That has optional typing. Plus they have GWT, which is Java to JS. Don't get me wrong, I'm super grateful to receive their fruits of labor for free, but this looks like a case of the left hand not knowing what the right hand is doing.

Also AtScript, for the upcoming Angular 2.0: https://docs.google.com/document/d/11YUzC-1d0V1-Q3V0fQ7KSit9...

Re: Scala.js no longer experimental

#44

Post by amelius »

icebraining wrote: post #32
amelius wrote: post #28

Earlier quoted context omitted.

This (asynchronous execution) means we are forced to use cooperative multitasking, which is probably not good for reduced latency, and therefore bad for responsiveness (compare to the Windows 3.11 days where we were forced to use cooperative multitasking). Yes, I know most JS programs today use asynchronous execution successfully in practice, but to use it as the basis of a language platform is not a good idea IMHO.…

You can actually have multithreading by running Scala actors in web workers: https://github.com/sjrd/scala-js-actors

But you still can't use structurally shared data, which you need when you want to share large data-structures between threads.

Re: Scala.js no longer experimental

#46

Post by sakri »

noelwelsh wrote: post #26

I was very sceptical of Scala.js, but decided to use it in a low risk project ( http://github.com/underscoreio/doodle ) to render to the HTML canvas and I am shocked at how well it works. The community is moving very quickly as well, and many advanced Scala projects have had the necessary tweaks applied to run in Scala.js. Looking at broader trends, there is a clear movement towards static typing on the Javascript VM…

That's funny, I'm currently writing a Canvas visualization, the code base is getting bigger than anticipated, hence messier than I'd like. When I saw this article I thought "damn, I bet this would be way easier managed in Scala, if I only knew Scala".

Re: Scala.js no longer experimental

#47

Post by noelwelsh »

desdiv wrote: post #36
noelwelsh wrote: post #26

I was very sceptical of Scala.js, but decided to use it in a low risk project ( http://github.com/underscoreio/doodle ) to render to the HTML canvas and I am shocked at how well it works. The community is moving very quickly as well, and many advanced Scala projects have had the necessary tweaks applied to run in Scala.js. Looking at broader trends, there is a clear movement towards static typing on the Javascript VM…

Google is developing SoundScript Aren't they doing Dart as well? That has optional typing. Plus they have GWT, which is Java to JS. Don't get me wrong, I'm super grateful to receive their fruits of labor for free, but this looks like a case of the left hand not knowing what the right hand is doing.

I think this is fairly typical of large companies. For example, Facebook also has a framework called Javelin that predates React by a few years and had it's own take on functional reactive programming. It's best to think of a large company as several small companies pursuing their own agendas.

Re: Scala.js no longer experimental

#48

Post by noelwelsh »

sakri wrote: post #46
noelwelsh wrote: post #26

I was very sceptical of Scala.js, but decided to use it in a low risk project ( http://github.com/underscoreio/doodle ) to render to the HTML canvas and I am shocked at how well it works. The community is moving very quickly as well, and many advanced Scala projects have had the necessary tweaks applied to run in Scala.js. Looking at broader trends, there is a clear movement towards static typing on the Javascript VM…

That's funny, I'm currently writing a Canvas visualization, the code base is getting bigger than anticipated, hence messier than I'd like. When I saw this article I thought "damn, I bet this would be way easier managed in Scala, if I only knew Scala".

If you want to learn Scala allow me to make a shameless plug:

- We are using Doodle as the tool for exploring Scala in free events running in San Francisco and Edinburgh in March. More will be scheduled later.

- We are using the design of Doodle as a case study in our online Essential Scala course. This is a paid course, with the first iteration starting in late Feb at a crazy 50% discount (75% off for diversity applicants).

All our events are listed on http://underscore.io/events/

Re: Scala.js no longer experimental

#49

Post by jbooth »

noelwelsh wrote: post #26

I was very sceptical of Scala.js, but decided to use it in a low risk project ( http://github.com/underscoreio/doodle ) to render to the HTML canvas and I am shocked at how well it works. The community is moving very quickly as well, and many advanced Scala projects have had the necessary tweaks applied to run in Scala.js. Looking at broader trends, there is a clear movement towards static typing on the Javascript VM…

So here's my question, how come no browser has a way for a java applet to manipulate the DOM? We've got GWT compiling java to JS, we've got this compiling scala to JS.. and the JVM was originally built to run inside of a browser. Why can't we just close the circle? I guess people don't want their website visitors to see a "you must upgrade java" popup first thing?

Re: Scala.js no longer experimental

#50

Post by [deleted] »

jbooth wrote: post #49
noelwelsh wrote: post #26

I was very sceptical of Scala.js, but decided to use it in a low risk project ( http://github.com/underscoreio/doodle ) to render to the HTML canvas and I am shocked at how well it works. The community is moving very quickly as well, and many advanced Scala projects have had the necessary tweaks applied to run in Scala.js. Looking at broader trends, there is a clear movement towards static typing on the Javascript VM…

So here's my question, how come no browser has a way for a java applet to manipulate the DOM? We've got GWT compiling java to JS, we've got this compiling scala to JS.. and the JVM was originally built to run inside of a browser. Why can't we just close the circle? I guess people don't want their website visitors to see a "you must upgrade java" popup first thing?

[deleted]
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