Scala Article

Introduction

Scala is a general-purpose programming language providing support for functional programming and a strog static type system. Designed to be concise, many of Scala's design decisions aimed to address criticisms of Java

Scala source code is intended to be compiled to Java bytecode, so that the resulting executable code runs on a JVM (Java Virtual Machine). It also provides language interoperability with Java, so that libraries written in either language may be referenced directly in Scala or Java code. Scala is Object Oriented and uses a curly-brace syntax reminiscent of the C programming language, it also has many features of functional programming too.

This language first appeared in 2004 and was designed by Martin Odersky. He formerly worked on Generic Java and javac, Sun's Java compiler.

Scala is influenced by Erlang, Haskell, Java, Standard ML and others.

Features

Type Inference - In Scala, the return type of function is determined by the type of last expression present in the function.

Singleton Object - There are no static variables and methods in Scala. Instead a Singleton object is used, which is basically one object in a source file. This is declared by using object instead of class keyword.

Traits - A trait is like an interface with a partial implementation. In Scala, a trait is a collection of abstract and non-abstract methods. You can create a trait that can have all abstract methods or some abstract ad some non-abstract methods.

Concurrency Control - Scala provides standard library which includes the actor model. You can write concurrency code by using this model. Scala provides one more platform and tool to deal wit concurrency known as Akka. Akka is a separate open source framework that provides actor-based concurrency. Akka actors may be distributed or combined with software transactional memory.

Lazy Computation - Computation is lazy by default in Scala. This programming language evaluated expressions only when they are required. You can decalre a lazy variable by using the "lazy" keyword. It is used to increase performance.

Pros/Cons

Scala has its pros and cons:

Pros	Cons
Scala is one of the few fuctional languages that you can get paid to write in - Scala is needed in quite a few jobs, compared to other functional programming languages. Erlang and Haskell are less needed compared to it.	Scala is just one skill from an infinite selection that I could be learning - Is learning Scala actually the best use of my time considering that software developers have an essentially infinite range of skills that they are expected to have mastered? I could spend my time learning Scala, but is it not more valuable to be learning the intricacies of a cloud platform with AWS (Amazon Web Services) instead? Or maybe I should be learning the logic behind analyzing big data? If you ask an experienced Java and Scala developer to solve a problem, chances are you'll get two different solutions. But you will get solutions because neither Scala nor Java provide a fundamentally unique way to get a computer to do what computers do.
You know a company takes development seriously when it is writing code in Scala - Since Scala developers are scarce and are needed, the job market tailors to them, and potential employers tried to go above and beyond to get and keep Scala developers. This is because Scala can be used in an OO or functional sense and can be used for data.	Scala might just be the icebreaker for languages like Kotlin - Kotlin has started to take off as the preferred language in Android Studio. This may push Scala down a few choices, as more employers will want to keep pace with the more popular languages.
You will be a better developer, even if you have to write in plain old Java - Why isn't this variable final? Am I really just doing a reduce or a map with this for loop? Should I return a new object instead of modifying the existing one? Is this an optional return value? These are all questions that I find I ask myself when writing Java because of my limited exposure to functional programming. And asking these questions has made me write better code. While coding in Scala may not be a option, exposure to Scala can only improve my code, even if it is Java code.	Maybe functional Java is good enough? - Writing functional Java gives you code that other gazillion Java developers in the world would be familiar enough to read and understand, you forgo the headaches of moving existing developers and organizations to new language, and Java 8 give you functional support right there in the language. It may not be pure, but maybe you get the 20% of functional coding features with 80% of the benefits?

Extra Programs

Related to Scala:

Related Languages - Java, Haskell, Erlang, Kotlin
Data Manipulation - Databases, MongoDB, mySQL
IDEs - JetBrains, Visual Studio, CodeBlocks
Programming Concepts - Functional, Object-Oriented
Other - JVM, JavaScript (scala.js)

Sources

Summary

In conclusion:

Scala is a very useful language to have in your arsenal. It can be both used as a object-oriented programming language as well as a functional programming language. This is really useful because you can solve different types of problems more efficently and effectively as compared with Java. Also people who arent confident with, let say, OO principles can program functionally. Scala is a good language to start learning, however, with the rise of Kotlin, Scala is not in as high demand as it used to be, so be weary...