j herber
Posts: 6
Nickname: 53144
Registered: Jan, 2008
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Re: Is Scala being used for Real World Application Development
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Posted: Sep 9, 2008 3:31 PM
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Scala is already appearing in numerous startups. Startups are many orders faster at matching technology to solutions than Enterprises. Enterprises are more concerned with reducing risk in Strategic Plans, TCO, and Management by Exception.
As successes bubble out of Startups, they will be written up. If the Case Studies show compelling advantages in cost, time to market, productivity, or end-user-satisfaction the tool chain will be evaluated in pilot project with smaller controlled groups in Enterprises.
There are companies of all sizes and shapes in between, but these are the "book ends" so to speak.
Do not expect Java to go away. Trillions of dollars invested in Java software, running in thousands of companies. If you are in operations and support of IT apps, you will not likely be moving to any new language anytime soon.
If you are in new product development, and the "Case Studies" look good (I suspect they will continue to), and you want to work with Scala, then be prepared to show your boss or Tech Lead this data, make an argument for trying it out, and maybe have a few coded up examples to show your enthusiasm to move to a better solution.
The number of languages in the language ecosystem are growing. Scala has overlap with some dynamic and some static languages. It also has overlap with OO and Functional languages. This may help Scala's growth potential. What helps more than anything though is easy access to Java libraries and Operations Support at the IT Center is identical for Scala and Java.
One barrier to entry is that Scala will be introducing Java programmers to Functional Programming for the first time. A bit of a curve, if you've never done any.
As far as timelines go, it appears by end of this year, a number of significant milestones will have been reached. Language changes significantly slowed. Formal language change process is in place (SIP). Several books should ship by end of year. IDE support should be pretty solid. Libraries being polished. Edge case bugs found and fixed. 2009 shaping up as that year that progressive developers might actually take the language for a spin at work. Blog traffic on the language should soar. If it is good news, the language has the potential to replace a small percentage of new Java development next year, and continue to grow depending up on the results coming in.
twitter/jherber
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