Scala may have started out as a "nicer Java" back when Java was in its fossilized stage, but the niche it has grown into is more like a Haskell for the JVM. A p

Scala may have started out as a "nicer Java" back when Java was in its fossilized stage, but the niche it has grown into is more like a Haskell for the JVM. A pretty cool niche, but niche. "Nicer" just isn't part of its claim anymore, hasn't been for quite some time. Kotlin can certainly be seen as a what Scala could have been if had stayed on the "nicer Java" course, and no, Java isn't anywhere close to overtaking Kotlin in the field of unambitous but spectacularly effective niceties. Because that's what Kotlin is, from a Scala perspective: low hanging fruit language features, not powerful enough to even bother. But the Kotlin standpoint is that more powerful isn't necessarily a good thing, they judge a feature on how it improves mundane code, without changing the entire programming paradigm. Scala has long stopped trying to be a "nicer Java", they have chosen a different path. And that's not a bad thing, it just isn't for everybody.