Scala Research

I just read about Scala for a few hours. Mainly from Java to Scala with the Help of Experts under the sections “Scala for Java Refugees” and “The busy Java developer’s guide to Scala”.

My first take-away is “Good Luck With That”. Where “That” is code like this: (based on Listing 9)

def main(args : Array[String])
  {
    tryToFigureThisOut     // "This is not part of the language"
    {
      thisMethodThrowsExceptions_GoodLuck
    }
  }

It reminds me of this [invalid but representational] c code:

#define while(j,k) printf(j,k); fflush(stdout);
#define F for(r=d;r<n+N;
F++r)*r=c;
while (--y, --x);

My second take-away is that Scala is a nice spoiler for Ruby – I can see people who are drawn to the wild world of Ruby settling for Scala instead. It is crazy enough to scratch the itch, but backwards-compatible.