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Scala is Not a Functional Programming Language

38 points by blasdel 18y ago

mindslight 18y ago
I remember it initially being described as a hybrid language, but obviously the functional features and idioms stick out more to the Java community, so it's going to be described as functional. I do wonder why Scala requires 'def' to be within a class/body (it could just create an implicit object inheriting from FunctionX) Also, destructuring pattern matching does require language support (the linked example only involves simple predicates)
ontilt 18y ago
I've been hacking in Java, Ruby, and Haskell for some time and when I started learning Scala, I quickly came to the conclusion that it was much more like Ruby than it is like Haskell.
- ontilt 18y ago
  ...not that there's anything wrong with that. I love the conciseness of Scala compared to Java and, even if it's not as elegant as a pure functional language, it seems like a great language for Getting Things Done.
stephenjudkins 18y ago
It seems he may have some good points, but he definitely tried pretty hard to make some of the examples ugly. The way currying is generally done in Scala is much cleaner-looking than this, as the first several google results for "scala currying" show. Also, he seems to throw in some extra unnecessary stuff (sealed?) in the case classes example. I appreciate informed criticisms like this, but he is definitely representing Scala in as poor a light as possible.
- mrkurt 18y ago
  He speaks to the currying syntax directly in the comments. The important distinction is that the "nice" Scala syntax for currying requires that you allow for it when you write your functions. That's not really broadly useful, though it can pretty up some applications.
  - KrisJordan 18y ago
    From reading Odersky's book Scala's notion of currying functions i.e. f(x:Int)(y:Int) is differentiated from partially applied functions. Here is his currying example using a partially applied x(): def x(a:Int, b:Int) = a + b val y = x(1, _:Int) // y is a partially applied function y(2) ========== Much better looking than his snippet: def x(a:Int, b:Int) = a + b def y = Function.curried(x _)(1) y(2)
anuo520 18y ago
Just dropping by to say Hi! Great site! http://www.g2gmart.com http://www.g2gmart.com
- Maro 18y ago
  It'd be nice if links in downvoted comments would get grayed out like the text.
xtho 18y ago
I wonder if by the author's standards lisp/scheme were a functional language?

38 points by blasdel 18y ago

I remember it initially being described as a hybrid language, but obviously the functional features and idioms stick out more to the Java community, so it's going to be described as functional. I do wonder why Scala requires 'def' to be within a class/body (it could just create an implicit object inheriting from FunctionX) Also, destructuring pattern matching does require language support (the linked example only involves simple predicates)

ontilt 18y ago

I've been hacking in Java, Ruby, and Haskell for some time and when I started learning Scala, I quickly came to the conclusion that it was much more like Ruby than it is like Haskell.

ontilt 18y ago
...not that there's anything wrong with that. I love the conciseness of Scala compared to Java and, even if it's not as elegant as a pure functional language, it seems like a great language for Getting Things Done.

stephenjudkins 18y ago

It seems he may have some good points, but he definitely tried pretty hard to make some of the examples ugly. The way currying is generally done in Scala is much cleaner-looking than this, as the first several google results for "scala currying" show. Also, he seems to throw in some extra unnecessary stuff (sealed?) in the case classes example. I appreciate informed criticisms like this, but he is definitely representing Scala in as poor a light as possible.

mrkurt 18y ago
He speaks to the currying syntax directly in the comments. The important distinction is that the "nice" Scala syntax for currying requires that you allow for it when you write your functions. That's not really broadly useful, though it can pretty up some applications.
- KrisJordan 18y ago
  From reading Odersky's book Scala's notion of currying functions i.e. f(x:Int)(y:Int) is differentiated from partially applied functions. Here is his currying example using a partially applied x(): def x(a:Int, b:Int) = a + b val y = x(1, _:Int) // y is a partially applied function y(2) ========== Much better looking than his snippet: def x(a:Int, b:Int) = a + b def y = Function.curried(x _)(1) y(2)

anuo520 18y ago

Just dropping by to say Hi! Great site! http://www.g2gmart.com http://www.g2gmart.com

Maro 18y ago
It'd be nice if links in downvoted comments would get grayed out like the text.

xtho 18y ago

I wonder if by the author's standards lisp/scheme were a functional language?