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Google should do something about their APIs, sure. But they should do something about their APIs before doing something about their language. The problem with

by DCKing 12y ago

Google should do something about their APIs, sure. But they should do something about their APIs before doing something about their language. The problem with Scala is not symbols or legibility (although that used to be a major problem), but the fact that its programming style tends to be mostly functional. Monads, for-sugar, implicits, immutability: stuff everyone should master but in practice very few do. > You say this could make Android less accessible. Maybe. But it could also make Scala more accessible, providing a whole new class of developers with a stepping-stone from somewhere very familiar towards these valuable high-level features. The Android developers unfortunately have no interest in making Scala more accessible. They have an interest in making Android more accessible. They would have to make a lot of sacrifices to make Scala a primary language for Android, and the benefits would be rather small from their perspective. Scala's killer apps are on the server side. That seems to be going quite well so far.

frowaway001 12y ago
> The Android developers unfortunately have no interest in making Scala more accessible. They have an interest in making Android more accessible. They would have to make a lot of sacrifices to make Scala a primary language for Android, and the benefits would be rather small from their perspective. I think just fixing their god-damn bugs would be enough to make people happy.
lmm 12y ago
> The Android developers unfortunately have no interest in making Scala more accessible. They have an interest in making Android more accessible. They would have to make a lot of sacrifices to make Scala a primary language for Android, and the benefits would be rather small from their perspective. Accessible is one thing, but not the only thing that matters, particularly as the platform matures. If using Scala makes developers more productive, or leads them to write less buggy code, that could be a huge advantage for Android.
- DCKing 12y ago
  If Scala makes developers more productive and code less buggy at all, it will only do so for some developers. Look at the investments required: APIs need rewriting, apps need rewriting for the new APIs, people need to be trained within Google, people need to be trained for it outside of the workplace, and other people will still look at Scala code and stay behind confused. And you need to do that for what? Because Java is too verbose? I hate (real-world) Java as much as the next guy but I don't have any illusions on this because the argument just doesn't add up and the effort doesn't seem worth it by a big margin. It would be much more feasible if Google would release an improved Android APIv2 with stronger immutability, first-class support for Java 8 and its features (lambdas, Optionals) and no 64k DEX limit. That would be a huge improvement for both Java and Scala Android devleopers, and it would also be feasible.

by DCKing 12y ago

frowaway001 12y ago

> The Android developers unfortunately have no interest in making Scala more accessible. They have an interest in making Android more accessible. They would have to make a lot of sacrifices to make Scala a primary language for Android, and the benefits would be rather small from their perspective. I think just fixing their god-damn bugs would be enough to make people happy.

lmm 12y ago

> The Android developers unfortunately have no interest in making Scala more accessible. They have an interest in making Android more accessible. They would have to make a lot of sacrifices to make Scala a primary language for Android, and the benefits would be rather small from their perspective. Accessible is one thing, but not the only thing that matters, particularly as the platform matures. If using Scala makes developers more productive, or leads them to write less buggy code, that could be a huge advantage for Android.

DCKing 12y ago
If Scala makes developers more productive and code less buggy at all, it will only do so for some developers. Look at the investments required: APIs need rewriting, apps need rewriting for the new APIs, people need to be trained within Google, people need to be trained for it outside of the workplace, and other people will still look at Scala code and stay behind confused. And you need to do that for what? Because Java is too verbose? I hate (real-world) Java as much as the next guy but I don't have any illusions on this because the argument just doesn't add up and the effort doesn't seem worth it by a big margin. It would be much more feasible if Google would release an improved Android APIv2 with stronger immutability, first-class support for Java 8 and its features (lambdas, Optionals) and no 64k DEX limit. That would be a huge improvement for both Java and Scala Android devleopers, and it would also be feasible.