Description of apply() is backwards or at least unclear; it's not that "new Song(name) goes to Song.apply(name)", rather, "Song(name)" -> "Song.apply(name)", which is commonly (and automatically, in the case of case classes) implemented as "new Song(name)".
It's worth mentioning the positive side of more concise syntax for closures - as someone who previously used lamdbas heavily in python this is a real win. "Seq("1", "2", "foo").map({n => stoi(n)})" should just be "Seq("1", "2", "foo").map({stoi(_)})" - or, in this particular case, "Seq("1", "2", "foo").map(stoi)". Of course, the price is shown at the end as having more than one way to write the same thing - but the differences in those examples are (IMO) superficial and don't impair readability.
The specific problem of infix/suffix methods should be solved with 2.10's compiler flags. They should also go some way towards improving source compatibility (features for which the syntax is expected to possibly change will stay behind flags), while 2.10 introduces a better binary compatibility policy. Still, most of the criticism is fair, and I'm pleased to see a comprehensive impression post like this.
It's worth mentioning the positive side of more concise syntax for closures - as someone who previously used lamdbas heavily in python this is a real win. "Seq("1", "2", "foo").map({n => stoi(n)})" should just be "Seq("1", "2", "foo").map({stoi(_)})" - or, in this particular case, "Seq("1", "2", "foo").map(stoi)". Of course, the price is shown at the end as having more than one way to write the same thing - but the differences in those examples are (IMO) superficial and don't impair readability.
The specific problem of infix/suffix methods should be solved with 2.10's compiler flags. They should also go some way towards improving source compatibility (features for which the syntax is expected to possibly change will stay behind flags), while 2.10 introduces a better binary compatibility policy. Still, most of the criticism is fair, and I'm pleased to see a comprehensive impression post like this.