Scala 3.0

I always have great respect for Scala because itself and the community tried to adopt and push the novel idea in the industry. Take a look at the changes, they're no joke to design and implement. At the same time, they're also trying to make the language consistent and simple. (Yes, I mean simple, not easy or single-paradigmed)

They are taking the hard way, and not only there are not enough people to appreciate the effort, but also attract some hatred from time to time. I hope Scala 3 would bring us and itself a bright future, and inspire more languages to move forward.

(For example, there are a lot of type features added to TypeScript in most releases because it needs to do the typing on existing dynamically typed languages, it may also be a hint that dependent type actually makes sense in mainstream languages).

This hurts so much. The nerd in me wants to gush over the improvements in Scala 3, but that pleasure has been ruined by observing in my own coworkers that the people who are the most excited about Scala are terribly self-indulgent in their work. I know when my coworker says he's excited about @inline that our first Scala 3 service (which I'm guessing he will roll out next month) will have more than one use of @inline, for no other reason than his desire to learn it. I am a huge fan of Scala, but I am developing a knee-jerk Grinchiness about any kind of excitement about it.

I hate the way my feelings have changed, but still, I think we have to wrestle with the fact that in many if not most software organizations, the Scala advocates are people who enjoy having fun with technology and leveling up their skills and who cultivate an intentionally and stubbornly unexamined assumption that continually adding new programming powers to their skillset is the best way to serve the needs of the business and the needs of their coworkers.

If I could wish for one impossible thing for Scala, it would be widespread top-down forced adoption, so that lots of people who aren't particularly enthusiastic about Scala are forced to use it. I think people who are less enthusiastic about Scala write better code in Scala. I think they could improve Scala (and Scala could improve their programming as well.) What I'm seeing now in practice is Scala being avoided by those people who have the skepticism and discipline to use it well, and embraced by people whose engineering decisions are determined by their feelings of curiosity and boredom.

def extractKey(e: Entry): e.Key = e.key

and:

def extractKey(e: Entry): Entry.Key = e.key // the way I'd normally think of it