A few days ago I wrote that I didn’t like the tone of Rod Johnson’s Scala Days keynote address; I thought it was a downer, when it could have been much more uplifting and inspirational, while still getting across some very important points.
Some people took that the wrong way, thinking I just wanted his speech to be a “rah-rah, life is great” speech. Those people obviously didn’t read my post. I just thought his presentation was a downer -- unusual and inappropriate for a keynote -- but I also stated that he had some important points.
So today I want to take a few additional moments to say that I think all of the following points from his slides are very important:
- Most of those using Scala in 2018 aren’t using it today: How do we welcome them?
- You shouldn’t feel guilty for using OO design in Scala
- Myth: We don’t need frameworks
- Myth: Java sucks, and Java coders aren’t as smart as us
- Backwards compatibility matters
- Does anyone stick with Java because Scala doesn’t have enough features??
- Need to be paranoid about footprint
- The Scala community will determine what happens next
- Community needs to welcome newbies
Also, I don’t know if he said this directly or not -- I didn’t listen to his keynote again, I just scanned through his slides -- but this can also be implied:
- Backwards compatibility and faster compiler is more important than new features
These are all excellent and important points. If the Scala community wanted to make these points their mantra or mainfesto for at least the next year, I wouldn’t object at all; I think that would be a wonderful thing.
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