The State of Scala
Ben Hutchison
Standard (30 minutes) on Thursday, 25 November 2010 11:30 - 12:00 in room Room 2
The past 5 years have seen an explosion of new languages for the Java platform. Among them, Scala is the leading candidate to succeed the ageing Java language in the statically-typed space. This modern and elegant language attempts to unify features from object-oriented and functional programming languages. Newcomers to Scala enjoy how it cuts the boilerplate while maintaining deep Java compatibility, while advanced users find its tools and type-system scales out to tackling very challenging problems. This talk overviews the state of Scala in 2010.
- The massive, protracted 2.8.0 release, which came out mid-2010 with a ton of new features
- Early industrial adopters
- ScalaDays 2010: the first Scala conference
- Simple Build Tool: a hugely popular Scala open-source project
- Some features Scala programmers love:
- Type inference: static typing with less typing
- Implicit conversions: retrofit behaviour onto someone else's code
- Type Specialization: run Scala code faster than equivalent Java code
Ben Hutchison
Senior Developer
REA Group, Melbourne Scala Users Group
Ben Hutchison has been developing enterpise and web software on the Java platform for 12 years using Java and JRuby, including time with Melbourne IT, Ericsson, Sensis, Goldman Sachs JB Were, Internet Business Systems and REA Group. Frustration with the limitations of the Java language led him to learn and embrace the Scala programming language. In April 2009, he founded the Melbourne Scala User Group, which has run monthly meetings since. Ben is an active participant in the online Scala community and has contributed code to the core Scala distribution.