Scala Designer Martin Odersky On Next Steps

rfernand79 writes Infoworld has an interview with Martin Odersky, designer of Scala, in which they discuss the future of this popular language. Three versions are discussed as being part of the Scala roadmap: The first one (2.12) focuses on better integration with Java 8, and making use of the latest improvements in the JVM. The second one (Aida) focuses on cleaning up the Scala libraries. But the third one (Don Giovani) is about a fundamental rethink of Scala, with a strong focus on simplicity.

Comments

Simple is good

[djbckr]

I really like Scala, but I only use a small subset of all the crazy (and what I consider a bunch of superfluous) language features. Simpler Java with Closures is what is should be. Granted I'm not a language expert/theorist, but most of us that code for a living aren't. Trying to read some of the more esoteric features of Scala leaves me with "I thought it was supposed to make my life easier". When I have to spend an hour looking up syntax to describe what the code is doing - well, that doesn't work for me.

Re:Simple is good

[phantomfive]

Granted I'm not a language expert/theorist,

Most people who design languages aren't either. It's a big elephant, and most language designers only see one side. There are the functional guys (like the Haskell designers) who see that immutability reduces bugs, but they don't see the benefits of object oriented programming the way Bertrand Meyer does. But Bertrand Meyer doesn't understand the benefits of run-time type binding, the way Alan Kay does. Alan Kay has a good understanding of message passing, but is an eternal academic.

Most programming language innovations are syntactic sugar, merely changing the way we write things. It's rare that a new language idea comes along that actually makes a difference.

Re:"Guyth"

[smittyoneeach]

They won't rest until they've figure out how to run Haskell on a JVM.