> Or even Ruby or Python- all of these have "limited tooling" as compared to Java. The reason for the IDE argument is again, a continuation of the "Stockholm

> Or even Ruby or Python- all of these have "limited tooling" as compared to Java. The reason for the IDE argument is again, a continuation of the "Stockholm syndrome" argument. The whole reason the IDEs are considered "required" for Java developers is because the language is verbose. You don't need an IDE to write Scala: type inference means less typing (pun intended), having a REPL means you can evaluate code before compiling. I haven't seen CDT and PyDev Eclipse plugins (which are reportedly well written, supported by large companies) get very much traction as you simply don't need Eclipse to program in C or Python: the languages are terse, the APIs (Python's standard library, C's stdlib and UNIX network APIs) are easy to keep in your head. That being said, as Scala is more statically typed than Java (but at the same time supports a REPL) it's theoretically possible to have better IDE support for it then Java. IntelliJ's Scala mode works very well (and is free) and ensime (for Emacs) is simply incredible: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=A2Lai8IjLoY http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=A2Lai8IjLoY On the other hand, the sort of tooling that actually solves difficult problems is just as available to Scala as it to Java: YourKit profiler, JVisualVM (and other JMX consoles), etc... In some cases there tools available (e.g., sbt, ScalaSpec/ScalaTest, Slime for Clojure) that are superior to the ones for Java.