Combines elements of languages like Haskell, OCaml, Java, Erlang
Killer features:
Higher order functions, first class functions (e.g. 'map', 'flatMap
'case class'es - i.e. data classes
pattern matching
emphasis on immutability
Installation
Only need a few things to be productive:
'sbt' - scala's build tool
Think: maven, gradle, npm, leiningen
OS X: `brew install sbt`
JDK8+ - Scala runs on the JVM
Text editor or IntelliJ IDEA
sbt tasks
Important tasks
'clean' - removes compiled .class files and other artifacts in target/ folder, akin to clearing cache
'compile' - compiles your project
'test' - runs tests
'run' - runs your code if it can find a main
Prefixing '~' to tasks will place a continuous watch on the project and will re-execute on writes (~compile will recompile the whole project on file saves)
Typical Project Structure
src/main/scala/... - source code
build.sbt - Build file (like package.json)
target/ - generated classes, artifacts, jars, etc
project/build.properties - sets sbt version
project/plugins.sbt - sbt plugins
(can be divided into subprojects, more on that in the future)
Light Intro to Some(Scala Features)
'Container' types and what they represent
Option - a value or lack thereof
Try - a value or failure wrapped over exception
Future - async value or failure wraped over exception
Case classes - data classes with default immutable fields, pattern matching
