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Creative Scala: A New Introduction to Scala

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Re: Creative Scala: A New Introduction to Scala

#11

Post by nrinaudo »

muraiki wrote: post #7
modersky wrote: post #4

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I think the Twitter school is pretty up-to-date. Scala-by-Example is older. There are also a large number of good books teaching Scala. I believe it's worth investing in one or two. And, there's my Coursera course, if you want a more rigorous introduction not just to Scala but to functional programming in general.

Wow, I didn't expect to receive a reply from you! Thanks, I'll check out the Coursera course. I did start reading "Functional Programming in Scala" by Paul Chiusano and Rúnar Bjarnason, but wanted something a bit more beginner-friendly. Then again I was recovering from a concussion at the time, so perhaps I should revisit it now. :)

While Functional Programming in Scala is great, it focuses on areas of Scala that I think are better tackled once you're more familiar with the core language - pattern matching, traits, case classes, variance, for comprehensions...

I find that the best book if you want a deep understanding of the language is Odersky's Programming in Scala. Complete, thorough, well written. It does expect you to have some programming experience, and some bits are perhaps over-detailed, but as long as you allow yourself to skip the bits that bore you, you're in for a treat.

Re: Creative Scala: A New Introduction to Scala

#12

Post by NickPollard »

muraiki wrote: post #7
modersky wrote: post #4

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I think the Twitter school is pretty up-to-date. Scala-by-Example is older. There are also a large number of good books teaching Scala. I believe it's worth investing in one or two. And, there's my Coursera course, if you want a more rigorous introduction not just to Scala but to functional programming in general.

Wow, I didn't expect to receive a reply from you! Thanks, I'll check out the Coursera course. I did start reading "Functional Programming in Scala" by Paul Chiusano and Rúnar Bjarnason, but wanted something a bit more beginner-friendly. Then again I was recovering from a concussion at the time, so perhaps I should revisit it now. :)

I would definitely recommend Martin's Coursera course, it's incredibly well structured and very well delivered, with enough difficulty to be challenging but it guides you through very gently. Well worth it for learning both Scala and Functional Programming.

Re: Creative Scala: A New Introduction to Scala

#14

Post by rrherr »

muraiki wrote: post #2

This looks nice! Can anyone recommend other good resources for Scala beginners? I'm checking out Twitter's Scala School[1] but the disclaimer near the start indicates that it's based on an older Scala version. I'm also using Odersky's "Scala by Example"[2] 1: http://twitter.github.io/scala_school 2: http://www.scala-lang.org/docu/files/ScalaByExample.pdf

I like Venkat Subramaniam's "Scala for the Intrigued." There's a 12 part article series[1], and a video.[2]

1: http://blog.agiledeveloper.com/2012/08/scala-for-intrigued-a... 2: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=grvvKURwGNg

Re: Creative Scala: A New Introduction to Scala

#15

Post by jghn »

NickPollard wrote: post #12
muraiki wrote: post #7

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Wow, I didn't expect to receive a reply from you! Thanks, I'll check out the Coursera course. I did start reading "Functional Programming in Scala" by Paul Chiusano and Rúnar Bjarnason, but wanted something a bit more beginner-friendly. Then again I was recovering from a concussion at the time, so perhaps I should revisit it now. :)

I would definitely recommend Martin's Coursera course, it's incredibly well structured and very well delivered, with enough difficulty to be challenging but it guides you through very gently. Well worth it for learning both Scala and Functional Programming.

In retrospect I found it to be more of a "functional programming which happens to be using scala" class and less an "intro to scala". That's not a bad thing (nor a good thing, it's just a thing) but it's not necessarily what is most useful for a person.

A few years ago I joined a group which had been using scala for a while (since '09ish IIRC) and I took the coursera class to get up to speed. It definitely helped but the reality was that their code base was closer to being java++ than to haskell and a lot of the early habits I picked up from the coursera class were immediately beaten out of me once I got rolling there.

One could argue that they were in the wrong, but I disagree - Scala is a multi-paradigm language and not everyone is going the FP route (I recently heard Venners refer to Scala as a "reform movement for OO, which is how I personally treat it, but that's neither here nor there).

All this said, I don't have a better suggestion. As I mentioned I took the Coursera class and read the Staircase book. The Twitter stuff online was useful but mainly I just read as much as I could online, tracked down conference videos, etc.

Re: Creative Scala: A New Introduction to Scala

#16

Post by cbogie »

muraiki wrote: post #2

This looks nice! Can anyone recommend other good resources for Scala beginners? I'm checking out Twitter's Scala School[1] but the disclaimer near the start indicates that it's based on an older Scala version. I'm also using Odersky's "Scala by Example"[2] 1: http://twitter.github.io/scala_school 2: http://www.scala-lang.org/docu/files/ScalaByExample.pdf

i just met a guy named jason swartz who wrote this book: http://shop.oreilly.com/product/0636920030287.do

http://chimera.labs.oreilly.com/books/1234000001798/index.ht...

Re: Creative Scala: A New Introduction to Scala

#17

Post by noelwelsh »

catkin wrote: post #8

This is exactly what I was looking for! I started looking at Scala over the weekend and found the existing beginner-oriented documentation to be pretty lacking. I also signed up for the course.

Let me know how you get on with the material. We're very keen to find out how it works in practice.

Re: Creative Scala: A New Introduction to Scala

#18

Post by ssmoot »

catkin wrote: post #8

This is exactly what I was looking for! I started looking at Scala over the weekend and found the existing beginner-oriented documentation to be pretty lacking. I also signed up for the course.

The Neophyte's Guide to Scala is the best language intro I've read.

No other platform I'm aware of has anything like Typesafe Activator, which is an awesome learning/tutorial resource.

There's also Scala Koans out there somewhere I found helpful to practice with.

Re: Creative Scala: A New Introduction to Scala

#19

Post by Fiahil »

I like the idea of using graphics to introduce functional programming to beginners. From experience, I think taking the risk of introducing key concepts in an visually appealing way is much more effective than using classic examples (calculators?).

Re: Creative Scala: A New Introduction to Scala

#20

Post by worklogin »

heathermiller wrote: post #13

For a ground-up, thorough, and free course on functional programming in Scala, take the course Martin Odersky teaches our undergrads at EPFL (Functional Programming Principles in Scala): https://www.coursera.org/course/progfun Given as a MOOC on Coursera.

That course is definitely targeted to people with previous programming experience.
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