Scala Attractions

Here are some of the things I find attractive about Scala. I still haven't written a line of code, though, so don't take it too seriously. Just first impressions of a language connoisseur :-)

user defined operators
In C++ you'd call this operator overloading, but Scala doesn't have a reserved set of operators. Even "+" is just a method. Obviously, this has potential to be abused, like any other feature. But it's a lot nicer to be able to say x + y for a new type of numbers, rather than x.plus(y)

traits
Scala traits are like Java interfaces, but they can include method implementations. They're similar to mix-ins. I struggled to do similar things in C++ so I can see the value.

implicit conversions
Ruby and other dynamic languages have "open classes" where you can modify existing classes at any time. They call it "monkey patching". It can be really useful, but I also find it really scary. Maybe I'm just a wimp, but I don't want standard classes changing under me. If I use some third party library or plug-in, I'm not sure I want the standard string or list class to change as a result.

Scala takes a different approach - you define implicit conversions to your own class. So instead of adding methods to String, you define an implicit conversion to MyString, which then has the extra methods you want. Scala provides a number of "rich wrappers" with implicit conversions for things like RichString and RichInt.

This is a good example of why you need to focus on the end, not the means. If what you want is to be able to write str.myOperation() there's more than one way to do that, and it doesn't necessarily require a dynamic language.

Of course, implicit conversions can cause problems as I know well from C++. But Scala's approach looks like it avoids most of the problems.

everything's an object
In other words, no more "primitive types", like in Java, that have to be handled specially. And no more boxing and unboxing. It's too bad Java didn't take this approach. There are performance issues, but with todays compiler technology they can be overcome.

first class functions
Meaning you can have unnamed function literals and pass functions around as values. To me, this is huge. Sure, you don't need this all the time, but to write higher level code it's invaluable.

lazy
This is a little thing, but I think it's cool that Scala provides a built-in way to do lazy initialization. As opposed to Java, where Effective Java has a whole section on how to do (and not do) lazy initialization.

type inference
Scala seems to combine the best of both worlds - the benefits of static typing, with almost the brevity of dynamic languages. Would you rather write:

val a = Array("one", "two", "three")
val b = new Map[String,String]

or:

String[] a = new String[] { "one", "two", "three" };
Map<int,string> b = new HashMap<string,string>();

I've talked about this before. C++ is just as bad as Java, although they are proposing an improvement in C++0X.

== is equals
I think Java made the wrong choice in making == compare pointers and equals compare values. I've talked about this before. It's great to see Scala break with Java and normally make == the same as equals.

actor model for concurrency
This is actually a Scala library rather than part of the Scala language. But it's a standard library. The actor model is what has made Erlang known for writing concurrent applications. I'm not sure how Scala's implementation compares to Erlang's, but it's nice to see tools for concurrency. Especially coming from C and C++ that basically said "not our problem". I wonder if I can make use of this when I get to making jSuneido's database concurrent?

lists and tuples
These are classic functional data structures. Although I wouldn't say I "know" functional programming, I'm certainly not ignorant of the benefits of imutable data structures and the dangers of side effects. My programmers will tell you I've been know to harp on the evils of side effects. cSuneido makes good use of lists and other imutable data structures.

class parameters
This looks like a great shortcut for writing simple classes. Would you rather write:

class Data(count: Int, name: String)

or:

class Data {
    final public int count;
    final public String name;
    Data(int count, String name) {
        this.count = count;
        this.name = name;
    }
}

optional semicolons
If nothing else, this will save me from the annoyance of typing semicolons in Suneido where I don't need them, and then turning around and omitting them from Java where I do! The joys of switching languages every other day!