Google has previewed Dart, a new language with a VM but also a JS compiler. InfoQ looks beyond the grammar at Dart's contributions for building apps: Snapshots, Isolates, Modularity.
Pre-built versions of Dart Editor, the Eclipse-based Dart IDE, are now available, making it easy to try Dart. Frog is a new Dart to Javascript compiler - written in Dart by the creator of the Jython and IronPython projects. Meanwhile the Dart team has been busy explaining the Dart language and proposing features to round out the type system, eg. nullable types and more.
The first RC for JRuby 1.6 is out and brings improved Ruby 1.9.2 compatibility, experimental C extensions support, improved Windows support, Ruby Gems Maven support, performance and profiling improvements and more. InfoQ talked to JRuby's Charles Nutter about JRuby 1.6, the impact of Java 7 on JRuby, new language features in Ruby and much more.
Following on from last week's surprise announcement at Devoxx that Sun would be adding closures to Java, Mark Reinhold has published a blog entry providing more background to the decision.
Mirah is a new language for the JVM that can do everything the Java language can do - but with a Ruby-ish syntax and powerful metaprogramming. InfoQ talks to Mirah's creator Charles Nutter.
Ruby's Open Classes are powerful - but can easily be misused. This article looks at how to minimize the risk of opening classes, alternatives, and how other languages provide similar capabilities.
Effective Java, Second Edition by Joshua Bloch is an updated version of the classic first edition, which was the winner of a 2001 Jolt Award. This edition has been updated to discuss Java 6 language features including generics, enums, annotations, autoboxing, the for-each loop, varargs, and concurrency utilities. InfoQ asked Bloch several questions about the areas that the new edition covers.
Sadek Drobi talks about abstracting the control syntax (glue), giving examples from mainstream and FP languages: Null, propagating errors, events, asynchronous programming, lists, streams, channels, functors, monads, and custom abstractions.
Stuart Halloway presents what makes Clojure different and, in his opinion, better than Java, plus some real-life lessons on Clojure development including BDD for functional code, wrapping Java APIs, third part libraries worth knowing, writing code without an objectual context, and the learning curve for a team new to the language.
In this interview from the Erlang Factory event in London, three creators of modern functional languages -- Martin Odersky, creator of Scala; Joe Armstrong, a creator of Erlang; and Don Syme, creator of F# -- discuss the similarities and differences of their creations. They also discuss their languages’ common thread -- that they integrate object-oriented features in functional languages.
Functional programming experts Simon Thompson and John Hughes discuss functional programming in today’s computing environments, particularly through the use of the Erlang and Haskell languages. In addition to debating the intricacies of both languages and their similarities and differences, Thompson and Hughes also discuss the growing popularity and maturity if functional programming.
The Humble Little Ruby Book covers the base syntax of the language, including working with values, flow control, and object oriented programming, into some of the library functionality of Ruby, such as databases, web services, and string manipulation.
