IntelliJ is very good for Scala, more responsive too. One of the intellij plugin updates did get very confused and was falsely highlighting errors in my project, haven't checked for a more recent update, but it was fairly recent. Glad to see the eclipse plugin getting some tlc, since most java devs love using eclipse even in cases where it's not the best choice.
A good post, recommending the use of Scala. I do agree with his point about the differences between scala collections and java ones. Interfacing with java libs which return java collections often requires conversions to scala collections before I can use the full power of scala. That said I'd still pick Scala any day of the week. The Scala book he references is surprisingly good, I bought it recently.
the conversions thing is true, but providing a wrapper class and an implicit utilizing scala.collection.JavaConverters makes that an issue you should only have to solve once.
There are other factors which aren't typically considered. The latency of someone walking from the head of the single queue to the cashier each time matters, especially if the person at the front isn't alert or is confused by trying to figure out which till to go to. People are smart enough to pick short queues to join and there is no latency. Also psychology, nobody wants to join a long queue even if it moves fast, they go to another store.
Time spent: zilch, perhaps because most of my dependencies are java libs not scala ones. Like many Java devs starting out using Scala as a 'better java' which means adding more scala libs over time. It's definitely very pleasant to code in Scala vs Java, def more productive, to a surprising extent even. The compatibility issue needs to be addressed though.
Same here, zero time spent on this. Scala is a joy to program in. It's good to see these kinds of postings with complaints and suggestions. They'll move the language and the ecosystem forward.
As a long time Java programmer I've found that Scala had made programming fun again. As much a I like Java I find coding in Scala more enjoyable. I am constantly surprised by the number of colleagues who have taken an intense interest in this language.
IntelliJ is very impressive. Only started using it when I noticed how good its Scala plugin is. Feels like the level of polish I'm used to with Java editors. Code completion, refactoring etc.
I bought the DX for the large screen so I can read programming books and pdfs on e ink. I like some of the artwork, esp the one of the fish. I think the kindle 4 smaller devices have more contemporary screen savers.
I didn't anticipate how much I would come to prefer my DX to everything else. I do wish that screensaver (that isn't quite the right term) was at least somewhat customizable though.
I bought the DX in order to read PDFs on it. No conversion is necessary - just attach a USB cable and drag-n-drop the PDFs to it. The page switch time is fine.
The only real downside is you can't "flip" through the pages. Reading a book sequentially works fine, any other way is a pain.
I got the DX at the $250 special Amazon had for it last Monday. The price is back to $379.
It works quite well for reading books sequentially, even technical books. One problem I had is that their fixed width font is not the most readable in the world. For jumping back and forth, the experience is not great, but not completely intolerable either.
The DX (and I think also the other Kindles by now) reads pdfs natively, no need for a conversion service.
I found Neal Gafter's response to Stephen's blog rather telling:
blog.joda.org/2011/11/real-life-scala-feedback-from-yammer.html?showComment=1322613312501&m=1#c6062812671177626424
