Functional Eye for the Object-Oriented Guy or Girl (An Introduction to the Scala Language)

About this Presentation

Scala is a programming language targeting the Java Virtual Machine that combines features of both functional and object-oriented languages. It is statically typed and compiles to Java byte code so existing Java libraries can be used by Scala code. There is a scripting interpreter available as well.

Significant Features:

• Type inference.
• Traits that are like Ruby mixins or Java interfaces that can include implementation.
• Functions as objects which enables support for anonymous functions, higher-order functions, lambda expressions and closures.
• Pattern matching constructs similar to functional languages like Erlang or Ocaml.
• Support for Erlang style actors which provide a message passing mechanism between concurrent processes.
• Built-in support for XML.

There are features of Scala that are being discussed/debated for inclusion in future versions of Java including type inference and function objects/closures.