Fascinating writeup, honestly. I've only dabbled with Scala around the edges and have been focusing on Clojure recently, so I don't have enough experience to agree or disagree with that, but Scala always felt too ... something, for me. I'm having fun with Clojure, and the community is wonderful. For quicky java-esque one-offs, Groovy is suiting me.
I've been looking for alternatives to Java for Android development. Since Python and Clojure aren't options (right now anyway), I looked at Scala among others.
I found the syntax pretty terrible, worse than Java in several ways. In particular, too complex. I also found the object system overly complicated (and I find Haskell's ok).
Oh I agree; I didn't know if you knew of it, or if you simply meant it wasn't "there" enough yet for your use. I just wanted to make you aware of it in case you weren't. Cheers!
The Bump guys did a "Scala on Android" talk at the last Scala Days. They didn't explicitly say it, but reading between the lines it sounded like, "Scala on Android…don't".
Have a look at Xtend (http://xtend-lang.org). It's exactly what the yammer guy is looking for: convenience of Scala (closures, type inference, and more) without the complexity.
And it compiles to Java source code, which makes it an ideal language for Android development.
If you are the real Sven then kudos for signing your name to this comment but I think it looks a bit opportunistic of you to pile on in this context with a recommendation for your language. No language is perfect and xtend itself hasn't even been used in anger yet.
It's like the Kentucky Derby. There's the big 4, scala, clojure, JRuby and groovy, all nice languages. Then there's the little 5: kotlin, ceylon, gosu, fantom, Xtend. Gosu and fantom are worth trying, I just haven't got around to it..
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[ 2.5 ms ] story [ 60.7 ms ] threadBut to each their own.
I found the syntax pretty terrible, worse than Java in several ways. In particular, too complex. I also found the object system overly complicated (and I find Haskell's ok).
http://www.slideshare.net/michael.galpin/scala-on-android-ex...
It's slow enough -- why would you want to make it even slower?
And it compiles to Java source code, which makes it an ideal language for Android development.
It's like the Kentucky Derby. There's the big 4, scala, clojure, JRuby and groovy, all nice languages. Then there's the little 5: kotlin, ceylon, gosu, fantom, Xtend. Gosu and fantom are worth trying, I just haven't got around to it..