A Java that doesn’t suck

I am a heavy C# and a Python user. I am looking at Java after a long time for some of my projects. I really miss the features in my favorite language. No delegates, no anonymous types, no type inference. In my quest to learn new languages, I started scouring the web. I then came across Scala. It is a better Java for the JVM. According to the Alioth performance shootout, Scala’s performance is comparable to Java6-server’s performance. It supports type-inference, real iterators, list comprehension, the functional goodness and much more. I am impressed by the ease in which it can use Java’s libraries.

In short, it is a Java that doesn’t suck.

Here are some of the resources that would help you get started with Scala.

Scala Home – http://www.scala-lang.org
Scala for Java Programmers – part 1 – http://blogs.sun.com/sundararajan/entry/scala_for_java_programmers
Scala for Java Programmers – part 2 – http://blogs.sun.com/sundararajan/entry/scala_for_java_programmers

This is a nice video by the creator of Scala about building component systems and how scala is relevant in this context.

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Former Member November 27, 2007 at 8:17 am

Thanks for the viedo, BTW there is a Web Framework for Scala called Lift:
http://liftweb.net/index.php/Main_Page

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Darren Hague November 28, 2007 at 8:25 am

I’ve been keeping an eye on Scala (and Lift) ever since I heard about them on the Java Posse podcast. Since NW CE 7.1 is Java 5 compliant, I must see if it’s possible to run Scala on it… then all I need to do is to come up with a reason to use it with SAP. 🙂

Seriously, I’ve a feeling somewhere inside me that Scala might just be the language to make calling ABAP RFCs a bit more natural than it is right now. Hmm – note to self: must write a Scala wrapper for RFCs…

– Darren

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