Programming Scala

What Hacker News says

1. drKarlFeb 2022
   So, since you mentioned Java, Kotlin and Groovy are very pleasant to write and quite easy to learn, lots of syntactic sugar. I'd say Kotlin is a better language than Groovy. Scala is a very deep language to learn, lots of fascinating features, just reading Programming Scala is amazing and totally recommended. The learning curve is steeper to get to more advanced concepts but it is worth it. Rust is not as difficult to learn as Scala, not so many features and concepts but it's a bit difficult to wrap your head around borrowing and lifetimes mostly, and some of the smart pointer stuff. I wouldn't recommend lisp or derivatives like Closure etc mostly because of the parentheses. It is said the last 3 pages of the code that controlled the Soviet nuclear launch codes written in Lisp are just ending parentheses.

   To scratch your itch of broadening your horizons and learn lots of amazing features that don't exist in the languages you know (Python, JavaScript, Typescript), I recommend Scala

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2. iceySep 2021
   Programming Scala is one of the best programming books I’ve ever read. Scala never stuck with me, but I’ve gone through the book a couple of times because it’s so well written and enjoyable to read.
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3. vvillenaApr 2020
   As for learning resources, I always loved the Oreilly "Programming Scala" book: http://shop.oreilly.com/product/0636920033073.do

   It's one of the few books that is structured in the same way a Scala developer thinks. Lots of Scala books follow the same order: keywords, usual syntax, features also in Java, features exclusive to Scala. I think this is damaging for any person looking to learn Scala, because it does nothing to lay out the way the features interact together. for instance, the Oreilly book shows pattern matching and implicits before class hierarchies, and that maps well with how Scala devs work, because the former features are encountered daily, while the latter tends to be uncommon.

   As for maintainability: you're right. Stricter languages are more maintainable. There's also the issue of powerful languages attracting certain kinds of people. Over the years, I've settled on a simple policy: reject everything that is not documented. This goes for both internal code, and external dependencies.

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4. merbAug 2016
   Actually you should start out with https://www.amazon.de/Programming-Scala-Martin-Odersky/dp/09...

   Even when it's targeted at the JVM. Scala.JS usage isn't that hard after you read half of the book.

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5. runT1MEJun 2016
   Have you read Functional Programming in Scala?

   https://www.amazon.com/Functional-Programming-Scala-Paul-Chi...

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6. speedkillsSep 2015
   Programming Scala 2nd edition and Functional Programming in Scala.
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