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The more Scala code I write, the more readable the Scala code of others becomes. I don't think that Scala is intrinsically any less grokkable than historically-mainstream languages, it's simply that most devs have not been exposed to FP in any significant way (that describes me) and it takes some time to get your head around it. It always strikes me that the IDE/tools complaints have a high degree of FUD-spread to them. I've had good luck with both Intellij+Scala plugin and with the Eclipse plugin. And yes, my code is in production and is substantially more complicated than "hello world". I -love- SBT and I detest the XML-hell at the heart of Maven projects. As you say, to each their own. Scala is a gateway drug to FP, which, given my newly-acquired prejudices is a good thing. But that said, you still have the vast universe of Java libraries at your disposal, and if you really want to, you can use Scala in an imperative fashion and still get a Java-with-fewer-warts experience. I've not been following the Java 8 roadmap very closely, but with each new release the language seems to get more complicated and uglier, with patch upon patch, a list of which, if stacked end-to-end, would stretch from Chicago to New York and would fill three Library of Congresses and many other Standard Metaphors. It's been a joy to work with a language without all that legacy rolled into it. You're right about the compiler, though for me it's not a huge issue. My builds take a minute or two, not tens of minutes. You're also right about the docs being weak at this time. There are definitely trade-offs either way in the Java vs Scala decision. For my purposes and my skillset, Scala is a sweet spot with Python a close second. |