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Does anyone have any tips for learning Scala? I want to learn the language, it looks very interesting, and I have some familiarity with Scheme, Haskell and Ocam

Does anyone have any tips for learning Scala? I want to learn the language, it looks very interesting, and I have some familiarity with Scheme, Haskell and Ocaml, but I just don't know how to start. What should I read? What should I build?

mafribe 10y ago
I have suggested Odersky's introductory MOOC [1] to many of my students and they all thought it was great. It's heavily inspired by SICP, so it should be easy, given your background. [1] https://www.coursera.org/learn/progfun1 https://www.coursera.org/learn/progfun1
- wpietri 10y ago
  Yes, I second the recommendation for the course. And I can happily recommend it for people who don't even plan to use Scala, but who just want to get a feel for functional vs OO approaches. Odersky sees them as complimentary, and in some sense Scala is his way of proving the point.
kod 10y ago
If you just want to learn the language, read scala for the impatient, first half is free on Lightbend's website. If you want to learn fp, read functional programming in scala (Manning).
0xmohit 10y ago
I'm reminded of "The State of Scala website and documentation" [0]. [0] https://groups.google.com/forum/#!topic/scala-internals/r2GnzCFc3TY https://groups.google.com/forum/#!topic/scala-internals/r2Gn...
paul_blei 10y ago
take a look at: http://blog.codacy.com/2015/07/03/how-to-learn-scala/ http://blog.codacy.com/2015/07/03/how-to-learn-scala/
doikor 10y ago
The https://www.scala-exercises.org/ https://www.scala-exercises.org/ is a good source (though it is just exercises so might not be the best first material) Great thing about it is that you can do it in a browser without setting up anything (requires a github account)
ing33k 10y ago
one more resource that I found useful https://www.youtube.com/user/DrMarkCLewis https://www.youtube.com/user/DrMarkCLewis
- Cyph0n 10y ago
  This the answer you're looking for, trust me ;) Once you get a grasp of the language and its extremely powerful features, pick up one of the standard books as a reference.
strange_aeons 10y ago
https://gist.github.com/djspiewak/cb72c41ac335a3a9b28b3307be04aa43 https://gist.github.com/djspiewak/cb72c41ac335a3a9b28b3307be... is a nice intro to the tooling/build setup.
0xmohit 10y ago
Scala School: https://twitter.github.io/scala_school/ https://twitter.github.io/scala_school/ Effective Scala: http://twitter.github.com/effectivescala/ http://twitter.github.com/effectivescala/ Advanced Functional Programming with Scala - Notes: https://gist.github.com/jdegoes/97459c0045f373f4eaf126998d8f65dc https://gist.github.com/jdegoes/97459c0045f373f4eaf126998d8f...
taude 10y ago
I've always been a Bruce Eckel fan. This book he wrote Atomic Scala [1] is easy to read and digest. [1] http://www.atomicscala.com/ http://www.atomicscala.com/
draven 10y ago
In addition to everything that's been recommended in this thread, Functional Programming in Scala is very nice. I read it after taking the Coursera course and working a bit on a Play project. Familiarity with Haskell and Ocaml will certainly help.
SatvikBeri 10y ago
If you already have some familiarity with functional programming but aren't extremely fluent in it, I recommend _Functional Programming in Scala_. It's one of the best functional programming books I've read.
whateveracct 10y ago
If you're familiar with Haskell, you can probably dive into the "Typelevel Scala" approach. Once you learn how to do ADTs and typeclasses in Scala, you'll be able to make use of scalaz or cats effectively and feel relatively at home.

mafribe 10y ago

I have suggested Odersky's introductory MOOC [1] to many of my students and they all thought it was great. It's heavily inspired by SICP, so it should be easy, given your background. [1] https://www.coursera.org/learn/progfun1 https://www.coursera.org/learn/progfun1

wpietri 10y ago
Yes, I second the recommendation for the course. And I can happily recommend it for people who don't even plan to use Scala, but who just want to get a feel for functional vs OO approaches. Odersky sees them as complimentary, and in some sense Scala is his way of proving the point.

kod 10y ago

If you just want to learn the language, read scala for the impatient, first half is free on Lightbend's website. If you want to learn fp, read functional programming in scala (Manning).

0xmohit 10y ago

I'm reminded of "The State of Scala website and documentation" [0]. [0] https://groups.google.com/forum/#!topic/scala-internals/r2GnzCFc3TY https://groups.google.com/forum/#!topic/scala-internals/r2Gn...

paul_blei 10y ago

take a look at: http://blog.codacy.com/2015/07/03/how-to-learn-scala/ http://blog.codacy.com/2015/07/03/how-to-learn-scala/

doikor 10y ago

The https://www.scala-exercises.org/ https://www.scala-exercises.org/ is a good source (though it is just exercises so might not be the best first material) Great thing about it is that you can do it in a browser without setting up anything (requires a github account)

ing33k 10y ago

one more resource that I found useful https://www.youtube.com/user/DrMarkCLewis https://www.youtube.com/user/DrMarkCLewis

Cyph0n 10y ago
This the answer you're looking for, trust me ;) Once you get a grasp of the language and its extremely powerful features, pick up one of the standard books as a reference.

strange_aeons 10y ago

https://gist.github.com/djspiewak/cb72c41ac335a3a9b28b3307be04aa43 https://gist.github.com/djspiewak/cb72c41ac335a3a9b28b3307be... is a nice intro to the tooling/build setup.

0xmohit 10y ago

Scala School: https://twitter.github.io/scala_school/ https://twitter.github.io/scala_school/ Effective Scala: http://twitter.github.com/effectivescala/ http://twitter.github.com/effectivescala/ Advanced Functional Programming with Scala - Notes: https://gist.github.com/jdegoes/97459c0045f373f4eaf126998d8f65dc https://gist.github.com/jdegoes/97459c0045f373f4eaf126998d8f...

taude 10y ago

I've always been a Bruce Eckel fan. This book he wrote Atomic Scala [1] is easy to read and digest. [1] http://www.atomicscala.com/ http://www.atomicscala.com/

draven 10y ago

In addition to everything that's been recommended in this thread, Functional Programming in Scala is very nice. I read it after taking the Coursera course and working a bit on a Play project. Familiarity with Haskell and Ocaml will certainly help.

SatvikBeri 10y ago

If you already have some familiarity with functional programming but aren't extremely fluent in it, I recommend _Functional Programming in Scala_. It's one of the best functional programming books I've read.

whateveracct 10y ago

If you're familiar with Haskell, you can probably dive into the "Typelevel Scala" approach. Once you learn how to do ADTs and typeclasses in Scala, you'll be able to make use of scalaz or cats effectively and feel relatively at home.