Scala is a new language for the Java Platform that blends object-oriented and functional programming concepts. This talk will focus on the design choices of Scala, and what they mean for developer productivity. The talk will highlight what it means to program in a functional style, and show you how Scala facilitates programming in a hybrid of both functional and imperative styles. The talk will also explore how Scala compares to dynamic languages such as Ruby and Python. And you'll see examples of real, production Scala code that will illustrate what it feels like to program in Scala.
Bill Venners is president of Artima Software, Inc. and editor-in- chief of Artima Developer. He is author of the book, Inside the Java Virtual Machine, a programmer-oriented survey of the Java platforms architecture and internals. His popular columns in JavaWorld magazine covered Java internals, object-oriented design, and Jini. Bill has been active in the Jini Community since its inception. He led the Jini Community ServiceUI project, whose ServiceUI API became the de facto standard way to associate user interfaces to Jini services.