Firstly, sorry it has been so long since last blog post. Life is busy when you have two children. I decided to try and learn Scala in 2013 and I am currently still pluggin' away. This blog post is a review of David Pollack's Beginning Scala.
David Pollack has been writing software since 1977. He wrote diagnostic software for the Commodore 64, the first real-time spreadsheet and founded the Lift Web Framework in 2007. He describes his experience with Scala as an epiphany that changed the way he approach software; he certainly writes with enthusiasm and passion and in this book we even get a forward from the Godfather himself Martin Odersky.
'Beginning Scala' focusses very much on the core fundamentals of Scala. The book in length is just under 300 pages. This is quite short in comparison to say Martin Odersky's excellent 'Programming in Scala' which is well over twice the length. Where I see the sweet spot for Beginning Scala is for someone who wants to dip their toe into the water and is curious about the language feels and wants to get a good overview of the language quickly. For more a detailed and substantial take on the language something like Odersky's book is necessary.
Areas covered include:
David Pollack has been writing software since 1977. He wrote diagnostic software for the Commodore 64, the first real-time spreadsheet and founded the Lift Web Framework in 2007. He describes his experience with Scala as an epiphany that changed the way he approach software; he certainly writes with enthusiasm and passion and in this book we even get a forward from the Godfather himself Martin Odersky.
'Beginning Scala' focusses very much on the core fundamentals of Scala. The book in length is just under 300 pages. This is quite short in comparison to say Martin Odersky's excellent 'Programming in Scala' which is well over twice the length. Where I see the sweet spot for Beginning Scala is for someone who wants to dip their toe into the water and is curious about the language feels and wants to get a good overview of the language quickly. For more a detailed and substantial take on the language something like Odersky's book is necessary.
Areas covered include:
- Scala traits and Scala's type system
- Call-by-name
- Scala collections and their immutable nature
- Functional characteristics (passing functions, returning functions)
- Pattern matching
- Actors and concurrency
So overall, a very good book and well worth a dabble for someone that wants a dabble in Scala but if you want more you'll need more.
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