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Bruce Eckel: Rethinking Scala

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Re: Bruce Eckel: Rethinking Scala

#11

Post by seanmcdirmid »

scott_s wrote: post #10
seanmcdirmid wrote: post #8

Earlier quoted context omitted.

It gave me the sentiment of the talk, at least, to figure out if I should watch the video at work (where we have our own line to the unlocked internet). I don't feel like I wasted my time going through 30 of them.

Agreed, which is why I posted them. Even though I can access YouTube, video is not a good way for me to consume information at work, and I found I was having trouble getting a general feel for the talk from checking out snippets.

Ya, I really wish more good talks were converted into web essays, like what Bret Victor did between the Inventing on Principle talk and Learnable Programming essay. It is just easier for me to read things, skimming at first, more deeply later, than to sit through a video in one shot. But I'm getting old, I heard younger kids prefer videos exclusively.

Re: Bruce Eckel: Rethinking Scala

#12

Post by WalterBright »

seanmcdirmid wrote: post #8
saryant wrote: post #7

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Not in this case. Those slides don't provide anything on their own.

It gave me the sentiment of the talk, at least, to figure out if I should watch the video at work (where we have our own line to the unlocked internet). I don't feel like I wasted my time going through 30 of them.

I wish most presentations came with transcripts. I can read a hour video transcript in a few minutes. Probably too much to ask for.

Re: Bruce Eckel: Rethinking Scala

#13

Post by choward »

seanmcdirmid wrote: post #8
saryant wrote: post #7

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Not in this case. Those slides don't provide anything on their own.

It gave me the sentiment of the talk, at least, to figure out if I should watch the video at work (where we have our own line to the unlocked internet). I don't feel like I wasted my time going through 30 of them.

That makes sense. I really dislike being linked to slides and not being able to find the presentation. That wasn't the case this time though, since there was a video.

Re: Bruce Eckel: Rethinking Scala

#14

Post by eranation »

oimaz wrote: post #3

I'm disagree with his comparison of scala community to "league of legends". I've found the scala community, especially, the #scala IRC to be friendliest so far. Folks are always there to help you out irrespective of your level of proficiency with language or programming in general

I second that, I don't know where he went, but at least in reddit.com/r/scala people are very nice and helpful, and Martin Odersky visits there frequently and answers questions. I was in touch with several people in the community and from typesafe / EPFL and really don't know where the league of legends comparison comes from.

In any case, I do suggest anyone who haven't seen or tried Scala to give it a shot. It's a fun and productive language. And the community is pretty great in my experience...

Re: Bruce Eckel: Rethinking Scala

#15

Post by eranation »

oimaz wrote: post #3

I'm disagree with his comparison of scala community to "league of legends". I've found the scala community, especially, the #scala IRC to be friendliest so far. Folks are always there to help you out irrespective of your level of proficiency with language or programming in general

I second that, I don't know where he went, but at least in reddit.com/r/scala people are very nice and helpful, and Martin Odersky visits there frequently and answers questions. I was in touch with several people in the community and from typesafe / EPFL and really don't know where the league of legends comparison comes from.

In any case, I do suggest anyone who haven't seen or tried Scala to give it a shot. It's a fun and productive language. And the community is pretty great in my experience...

Re: Bruce Eckel: Rethinking Scala

#16

Post by harry8 »

Summarising the content: about 9:10

"virtual machines and garbage collection which when java first appeared were still ridiculous concepts"

So I'm listening to a guy's thoughts on programming languages who apparently never heard of lisp and is seemingly unaware of Guy Steele.

"Our time is much better spent using a high level language..." Which is a sweepingly generalisation for which the exceptions, nuances and caveats are very clear to most reading Hacker News.

I'm stopping now. That's 10 minutes of my life I'm not getting back. If someone thinks this promotes scala please think again, it probably has the opposite effect. If someone was kind enough to point out where the non-ridiculous content actually starts and provide some summary of why it might be worth anyone's time I'd have another look but I think I'll be looking for thoughts on scala elsewhere. Signal to noise far too low for me here. YMMV.

As an aside, promoting a wider popularity for a skill set you already have is usually a good idea professionally. Ask any Perl expert. This is probably has something to do with the vitriol in the "programming language wars." It's nothing new, Dick Gabriel described C as "a virus." Many C++ promoters hate on C reflexively even when they're right. Many Java's hate on C++, Pythonistas on Perl, Haskell on Scala etc etc. Choose life.

Re: Bruce Eckel: Rethinking Scala

#18

Post by brandonmenc »

harry8 wrote: post #16

Summarising the content: about 9:10 "virtual machines and garbage collection which when java first appeared were still ridiculous concepts" So I'm listening to a guy's thoughts on programming languages who apparently never heard of lisp and is seemingly unaware of Guy Steele. "Our time is much better spent using a high level language..." Which is a sweepingly generalisation for which the exceptions, nuances and cavea…

> "virtual machines and garbage collection which when java first appeared were still ridiculous concepts" So I'm listening to a guy's thoughts on programming languages who apparently never heard of lisp and is seemingly unaware of Guy Steele.

He clearly states that they were considered ridiculous because of their (perceived) performance - he didn't say people doubted their existence.

Re: Bruce Eckel: Rethinking Scala

#19

Post by TylerE »

harry8 wrote: post #16

Summarising the content: about 9:10 "virtual machines and garbage collection which when java first appeared were still ridiculous concepts" So I'm listening to a guy's thoughts on programming languages who apparently never heard of lisp and is seemingly unaware of Guy Steele. "Our time is much better spent using a high level language..." Which is a sweepingly generalisation for which the exceptions, nuances and cavea…

It's Bruce Eckel. He's selling whatever's flavor of the month. The guy switches languages more often than some people chance socks.

Re: Bruce Eckel: Rethinking Scala

#20

Post by harry8 »

brandonmenc wrote: post #18
harry8 wrote: post #16

Summarising the content: about 9:10 "virtual machines and garbage collection which when java first appeared were still ridiculous concepts" So I'm listening to a guy's thoughts on programming languages who apparently never heard of lisp and is seemingly unaware of Guy Steele. "Our time is much better spent using a high level language..." Which is a sweepingly generalisation for which the exceptions, nuances and cavea…

> "virtual machines and garbage collection which when java first appeared were still ridiculous concepts" So I'm listening to a guy's thoughts on programming languages who apparently never heard of lisp and is seemingly unaware of Guy Steele. He clearly states that they were considered ridiculous because of their (perceived) performance - he didn't say people doubted their existence.

They weren't considered such by anyone with any expertise. If he has some he should have said "Falsely considered ..." Or people might think less of his own analysis. People might be wrong to think so due to poor communication on his part..?
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