6 ms·

Can anyone explain in less than ten words why one should learn Scala in 2013?

CCs 14y ago
Foursquare, Twitter, LinkedIn, Netflix, Box.com, Nest.com, CloudPhysics, Quora, Simple, Klout More than 10: http://www.quora.com/Startups/What-startups-or-tech-companies-are-using-Scala http://www.quora.com/Startups/What-startups-or-tech-companie...
- mdellabitta 14y ago
  Tumblr too.
- mcartyem 14y ago
  Are you suggesting that the metric of how powerful a programming language is is the quantity of companies using it?
  - clavalle 14y ago
    Powerful? Perhaps. Useful? Definitely.
  - bretthoerner 14y ago
    You're the only person in this thread who said the word 'powerful'.
  - CCs 14y ago
    He was asking: why should he learn Scala? Getting hired by any of these companies can be a good enough reason for some.
  - dbecker 14y ago
    If you ask for an explanation in 10 words, you shouldn't complain when it doesn't address all your concerns.
jeremyjh 14y ago
All your wildest dreams will come true.
- mcartyem 14y ago
  Does it have macros?
  - bretthoerner 14y ago
    Yes, as of Scala 2.10 which is staged and set to be released within days.
CCs 14y ago
My take on "Should I care about Scala?" question: - If you're average or below average developer: the language does not matter. Focus on algorithms and read other people's code a lot. - If you are using anything other than Java: consider testing Scala ( * ). You might learn great new ways of writing code, especially if you never used Functional Programming before. - If you're above average developer programming in Java: you have to learn Scala now! Soon having "Java" on your resume without "Scala" will suggest "this person's skills are outdated" or "this is a junior developer". ( * ) I just put together a small starter project, no dependencies: https://github.com/csoma/Scala-starter https://github.com/csoma/Scala-starter
- binarymax 14y ago
  So my colleage recommended we look into spark, which looks pretty neat, but said a caveat would be that we would need to learn scala. My first impression of your bare minimum is "holy crap that's a lot of boilerplate for a bare minimum project". While I expected there to be some code necessary to get thing up and running, my mind spun at that 400loc build script. What the heck is that for if you are not actually doing anything? Also, I have some experience with lisp as a functional language...What are all this crazy symbols doing in your main scala file? :Unit=\n ?? I hate to be critical, but what on earth is going on here? It's not exactly welcoming, by any means.
  - CCs 14y ago
    You don't have to use the sbt script provided here. It's just for convenience: it will automatically install Java, Scala and dependencies. Run it and you don't have to hunt down anything from the web. If you have SBT already installed (with homebrew, MSI, apt-get etc), you don't need that file at all. Main.scala is a "println", Build.scala sets some compiler flags and project name - this is all. About "Unit": Scala is strongly typed. In exchange you will not have run-time type errors and also you don't need type checking unit tests.
    - binarymax 14y ago
      Thanks for the response. Given it's going to the JVM I should have been more prepared for verbosity. I did a bit more reading and with your suggestions it seems my initial reaction is mostly just shock of a change from what I'm used to. I'll do some more research and will probably mellow out a bit :) Any suggestions on ebooks or otherwise to get started? Cheers!

CCs 14y ago

Foursquare, Twitter, LinkedIn, Netflix, Box.com, Nest.com, CloudPhysics, Quora, Simple, Klout More than 10: http://www.quora.com/Startups/What-startups-or-tech-companies-are-using-Scala http://www.quora.com/Startups/What-startups-or-tech-companie...

mdellabitta 14y ago
Tumblr too.
mcartyem 14y ago
Are you suggesting that the metric of how powerful a programming language is is the quantity of companies using it?
- clavalle 14y ago
  Powerful? Perhaps. Useful? Definitely.
- bretthoerner 14y ago
  You're the only person in this thread who said the word 'powerful'.
- CCs 14y ago
  He was asking: why should he learn Scala? Getting hired by any of these companies can be a good enough reason for some.
- dbecker 14y ago
  If you ask for an explanation in 10 words, you shouldn't complain when it doesn't address all your concerns.

jeremyjh 14y ago

All your wildest dreams will come true.

mcartyem 14y ago
Does it have macros?
- bretthoerner 14y ago
  Yes, as of Scala 2.10 which is staged and set to be released within days.

CCs 14y ago

My take on "Should I care about Scala?" question: - If you're average or below average developer: the language does not matter. Focus on algorithms and read other people's code a lot. - If you are using anything other than Java: consider testing Scala ( * ). You might learn great new ways of writing code, especially if you never used Functional Programming before. - If you're above average developer programming in Java: you have to learn Scala now! Soon having "Java" on your resume without "Scala" will suggest "this person's skills are outdated" or "this is a junior developer". ( * ) I just put together a small starter project, no dependencies: https://github.com/csoma/Scala-starter https://github.com/csoma/Scala-starter

binarymax 14y ago
So my colleage recommended we look into spark, which looks pretty neat, but said a caveat would be that we would need to learn scala. My first impression of your bare minimum is "holy crap that's a lot of boilerplate for a bare minimum project". While I expected there to be some code necessary to get thing up and running, my mind spun at that 400loc build script. What the heck is that for if you are not actually doing anything? Also, I have some experience with lisp as a functional language...What are all this crazy symbols doing in your main scala file? :Unit=\n ?? I hate to be critical, but what on earth is going on here? It's not exactly welcoming, by any means.
- CCs 14y ago
  You don't have to use the sbt script provided here. It's just for convenience: it will automatically install Java, Scala and dependencies. Run it and you don't have to hunt down anything from the web. If you have SBT already installed (with homebrew, MSI, apt-get etc), you don't need that file at all. Main.scala is a "println", Build.scala sets some compiler flags and project name - this is all. About "Unit": Scala is strongly typed. In exchange you will not have run-time type errors and also you don't need type checking unit tests.
  - binarymax 14y ago
    Thanks for the response. Given it's going to the JVM I should have been more prepared for verbosity. I did a bit more reading and with your suggestions it seems my initial reaction is mostly just shock of a change from what I'm used to. I'll do some more research and will probably mellow out a bit :) Any suggestions on ebooks or otherwise to get started? Cheers!