3 ms·

Java is great for doing backend work. Scala only makes it better due to the fact that you can apply functional principles if the problem you are trying to solve

Java is great for doing backend work. Scala only makes it better due to the fact that you can apply functional principles if the problem you are trying to solve requires it besides having a great set of OO features aswell (but never, ever mix the two within a monolith architecture, because that will end with tears.). Nice plus is Scala.js which can transpile Scala to JavaScript so you can write Scala code both for frontend and backend purposes. A great contender to Scala is starting to rise though, in the form of Clojure and ClojureScript. Clojure is starting to become pretty great for backend work and once you start using ClojureScript and topple it off with a framework such as Om or Reagent for building React based reactive UIs you will never look back.

edko 10y ago
I think Clojure and ClojureScript are really very nice, and a good contender to Scala if you like dynamic type systems. I think the biggest potential competitor to Scala may be Swift, now that it is open source. If it becomes as multi-platform as Scala is, and good back-end libraries become available, then Apple's support may be very hard to compete against. There were even rumours that Google was considering using it for Android. It is nice to see that Scala will soon be available for mobile development too. In a short time, there will be a nice overlap of platforms supported and language features, which will provide for interesting competition.