Tracking change and innovation in the enterprise software development community
Terracotta:
Scale your
Apps w/ease
Offload the DB:
Learn More!
Create REST
-enabled Web Apps
with Project Zero
from IBM.
Plan-driven dev
Environments and
Agile tutorials at the
Better Software
Conference & Expo!
Introducing the
SpringSource
Application Platform:
Next-gen Java
AppServer
Rule your SOA
with CentraSite
standards-based
registry/repository
In this presentation, Lex Spoon discusses the Scala programming language. Topics covered include the origin of Scala, the philosophy behind Scala, the Scala feature set, Object-Oriented and Functional programming in Scala, examples of Scala code, writing DSLs, how Scala is converted into Java, Scala performance, Abstract Data Types, unapply, actors and partial functions.
Since Robert Pickering published Foundations of F# in May, the language has grown significantly. Besides adding a host of new features, it is being moved from a research project to a fully supported, production-grade release. We asked Robert to discuss some of the new features in F#.
Blogger Gustavo Duarte cursed in church when he said that learning new programming languages is often a waste of time. He said that "In reality learning a new language is a gritty business in which most of the effort is spent on low-value tasks with poor return on time invested.". But not everyone agreed.
Microsoft released an new version of its F# compiler, version 1.9.4. A version more polished and simplified.
With the addition of LINQ, extension methods, and improved anonymous delegates, many algorithms no longer need explicit loops. In a post titled "If you are using a loop, you're doing it wrong", Chuck Jazdzewski looks at a possible future for C#.
In quest for more power, languages are often grown with new features. While it provides programmer with more freedom, does this actually achieve more power? Reg Braithwaite believes that this is not necessarily true and argues that it is possible to render language more powerful yet limiting options offered to programmers.
In his latest blog post, Michael Feathers argued that object oriented programming languages offer some built-in features that facilitate testing and are therefore more recovery friendly than functional languages. Proponents of functional languages expressed strong disagreement with this statement, which provoked a very passionate debate in the blog community.
What about using idioms and programming conventions as signals to achieve more readability and expressiveness? This is what Reg Braithwaite advocates for, suggesting that syntax or even paradigm choices can be a means to communicate the intent.
Developers familiar with functional programming languages might not need an explanation as to why expression trees are useful. For the rest of us expression trees are the most striking concept of all the new features in C# 3.0 or VB 9.0.
