Posts in the “scala” category

The new Gigahorse 0.1.0 page states that it is “an HTTP client for Scala with Async Http Client underneath.”

This image is from a well-written 2009 post on SO by Laurence Gonsalves about functional reactive programming. In his example, x and y are more or less equivalent to constantly calling getX() and getY() on a MouseEvent in Java or Scala. By that I mean that (a) getX() is immutable, and (b) its value changes over time, as the person moves the mouse.

(Here’s a link to where I show how to use MouseEvent as a MouseMotionListener.)

“If I were to pick a language to use today other than Java, it would be Scala.”

~ James Gosling, the creator of the Java programming language

(Quote from the back cover of Programming in Scala, Updated for Scala 2.12.)

If you’re interested in ScalaFX, here’s a link to their brief documentation, their tutorials on Github, and here’s a link to the ScalaFX versions of the Pro JavaFX book examples.

I'm not going to take any time to describe the following Scala XML/XPath example, other than to say that when it's run, it produces the following output, which is a simulated receipt for an order at a pizza store:

Scala JSON FAQ: How can I parse JSON text or a JSON document with Scala?

As I continue to plug away on my computer voice control application (SARAH), last night I started working with JSON, specifically the Lift-JSON library (part of the Lift Framework), which seems to be the preferred JSON library of the Scala community.

I don’t know if it will ever see the light of day, but I’ll be back to working on a potential new book this week.

As I wrote in the Preface to the Scala Cookbook, I had a certain target market in mind when I wrote the book, in particular Java developers who were interested in checking out Scala, and rapidly becoming productive in it. I’ll take this review from a well-known Scala developer as a sign that I’m in the ballpark of what I wanted to achieve.

This chart from Indeed.com shows Scala programming job trends. You can always find the current chart at this URL.

I’m proud to say that the Scala Cookbook is on O’Reilly’s bestselling list. While I hope that some of this is due to my work to “simplify, simplify, simplify,” I also know that it’s a reflection of (a) Scala being an awesome programming language, and (b) having some good reviewers kick me in the butt when I needed it. My “dream goal” when writing the Cookbook was that it would help make Scala more accessible to Java developers, so this gives me some hope that it can succeed in that mission.

Apple is up to six job positions mentioning Scala. I think they like it. :) I look forward to being their first employee when they open an office in Talkeetna, Alaska.

(Search for “scala” at jobs.apple.com for more details.)

I thought Apple might push their developers internally to develop with their new Swift programming language, but I just did a search that shows they now have 30 Scala job openings. In December, 2013 Apple had six Scala job openings, and in April, 2014 they had 17.

A website named payscale.com says this about learning Scala: “Depending on your line of work, there are certain in-demand skills that — should you possess them — can equate to a bump in pay compared to the average salaries in your professional field. Mastering these skills will likely help you earn a higher salary.”

I’m working on cover designs for my new “Functional Programming in Scala” book, and I want the words Functional Programming to be scary or intimidating. These are some different font ideas. The red fonts seem to get the “scary” point across well, though I suspect that some combinations of grays and white can also work.

Here’s a vimeo.com link to a talk titled, “The Future of Services,” by Jamie Allen, at Scala Italy.

Here’s a description of the talk from its page: “This talk will focus on how to build elastic, resilient service-based applications that can handle tremendous amounts of data in real time, and provide insight on many of the guiding principles that led to Lightbend creating the Lagom framework.”

For the last week or two I’ve been packing a few boxes every night as I prepare for a move a few miles to the north. Last night I started packing the old Beginning Scala book, when I noticed a bookmark I had in it. When I flipped to the bookmark, I found code like this:

trait Shape
case class Circle(radius: Double) extends Shape
case class Square(length: Double) extends Shape
case class Rectangle(h: Double, w: Double) extends Shape

which was later followed by code like this:

Okay, I’ve tried converting my free Play Framework Recipes booklet into an Amazon Kindle format, and in short, it’s going to take a fair amount of work to get it right. (The problem has to do with fixed-width fonts, i.e., all of the source code examples.)

If nothing else comes up, I’ll start working on my “Beginner’s Guide to Functional Programming in Scala” book again on Wednesday.

I’ve been away from it for so long, I honestly have no idea where I left off with it. At one point I felt like I had the book entirely written in my head, and it was just a matter of taking the time to write and edit it. I hope I made some good notes before I had to stop working on it.

When I first started writing this book I didn’t know if there was a need for it, and now that so much time has passed, I seriously wonder if there’s a need for it.

August 12, 2013: The Scala Cookbook eBook is half price today as the O’Reilly eBook deal of the day. Use the following link and the coupon code “DEAL” to get the discount: http://oreil.ly/16A2mqZ

Lightsaber is a free, open source application for Mac OS X systems that plays “lightsaber” sound effects as you move your mouse. Once Lightsaber is running, you can switch to any other application, and Lightsaber will play the sound effects when you move your mouse.

Note: Lightsaber has been tested on Mac OS X 10.9 (“Mavericks”) and 10.10 (“Yosemite”) systems. (It may also run on OS X 10.7 and 10.8, but I don’t have any computers running those older operating systems, so I can’t verify that at this time.)