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Show HN: Scala Tutorials – interactive Scala 3 lessons in the browser

81 points by eranation 2mo ago

eranation 2mo ago
It was a pet project of mine back in 2013 [0]... revived it (with a bit of help from Claude) and made it updated to Scala 3. Feedback welcome! [0] https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=7614130 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=7614130
- eviluncle 2mo ago
  Very cool, I love Scala and am quite sad that it isn't getting the interest and popularity it should.
  - tharmas 2mo ago
    Me too. It's my favorite language by far. So expressive. Although that can be a downside.
  - btreecat 2mo ago
    Instead of being sad, have you considered evaluating why that is?
    - eviluncle 1mo ago
      Would evaluating the reason(s) (a futile endeavor, if you ask me) replace my sadness? Hardly. It's a beautiful language I enjoy working with, and I'm saddened it isn't used and adopted by more people.
      - btreecat 1mo ago
        The goal isn't to replace, it's to understand so you can grow past it. If you start from the fact that people haven't adopted it, maybe it's not as beautiful or enjoyable to most developers.
        eviluncle 1mo ago
        My guy, I am bummed that such a powerful and readable language isn't more popular. I don't need to grow past anything. Being bummed about stuff is part of life. The reasons it isn't more well adopted are many. The conclusion that therefor it's "not beautiful or enjoyable to most developers" is flawed and baseless. It assumes perfect meritocracy where the most beautiful and enjoyable languages for developers are the most popular ones.
        btreecat 1mo ago
        I agree, being bummed is part of life, so is growing past it. Only so much time for what could have been. I don't think it would require a "perfect meritocracy" for languages that are found "beautiful" and "enjoyable" to succeed if they are also "practical" and have accessable tooling. What makes languages popular is clearly multidimensional, where astehctics are certainty one dimension (even ugly languages get updates over time if there's enough energy behind the project) but so is timing, tooling, investment, community, etc. I think it's reasonable to conclude that whatever beautiful nature is/was there wasn't enough. In terms of weight of importance, or degree of agreement.
otobrglez 2mo ago
Beautiful. Thank you! =)
noelwelsh 2mo ago
Very nice!
camdenreslink 2mo ago
This is very cool, I've never heard of Scastie, I'll need to take a closer look at that. I created a similar platform for Python (actually submitted to HN earlier today: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=49083146 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=49083146)
sunshine-o 2mo ago
I used to be very fond of Scala 10-15 years ago. I also had to move on for professional reasons and haven't kept up for a long time. I am very surprised that there is not much traction anymore for Scala. I see about 10x more Clojure news or projects on Github so it is not just about the JVM... Could someone point to why?
- wk_end 2mo ago
  My impression is that, rightly or wrongly, it developed a bit of a negative reputation in various ways - too esoteric, slow builds, toxic community, etc. - so people stayed away from it. And meanwhile, Java the language improved and Kotlin came along as (arguably) the better better Java, so there became less of a need for it.
  - morkalork 2mo ago
    Felt weirdly gate-kept as well.
  - hocuspocus 2mo ago
    I'm pretty sure most companies don't care nor are aware about the community drama. Arguably Rust is worse, and it doesn't impact its uptake. Scala was sold through Akka and Spark, solving pretty complex technical challenges that are less relevant nowadays. In fact if you can avoid Akka and Spark, do. A lot of companies followed the hype without investing in the developer experience. Tech debt hurts more in Scala than in a bigger, slow moving language. After typical turnover, you get teams inheriting unmaintainable codebases. This leaves a bad impression. It can be avoided, Twitter built world-class SOA with Finagle, as well as a complete layer of libraries on top of Hadoop, at a time where the Scala ecosystem was even rougher. The fact Databricks doesn't care much about the language also did tremendous damage, forcing the community to cross-build against very outdated versions of Scala. In short, Scala was never a better Java and adopters who thought otherwise invariably got burned.
    - hnaccount19293 2mo ago
      > Arguably Rust is worse, and it doesn't impact its uptake. I've been in both communities and this isn't my experience at all. There was a significant period of time in the Scala community where you'd get insulted constantly if you didn't buy into an extremely rigid purely functional programming mindset. Even Odersky and Li Haoyi were continuously berated. The Scala community moderators were far too slow at dealing with these people and a ton of people left because of it. The Rust community is amazingly welcoming in comparison and the constant vitriolic flaming that occurred in the Scala community simply wouldn't be tolerated.
Magicrafter13 2mo ago
I had to work with Scala in one class in college and my goodness did I absolutely hate it. I didn't know you could make Java worse, but they found a way. Nothing against the people making tutorials ofc, I just hated the language.
- tharmas 2mo ago
  I'm surprised. Usually, the gripes are the compile times or the lack of tooling compared to other languages. For functional programming its quite expressive. ZIO and Typelevel Cats.
  - Magicrafter13 2mo ago
    [dead]
- jjpones 2mo ago
  Funnily enough, as someone who absolutely hated my Java classes in college and ending up in a job that made me learn Scala, I just appreciated it as Java but better.
jjpones 2mo ago
Currently running an internal maintenance mode project with a Scala backend. The odd times I'm asked to look at it, I still find the code very beautiful.

81 points by eranation 2mo ago

It was a pet project of mine back in 2013 [0]... revived it (with a bit of help from Claude) and made it updated to Scala 3. Feedback welcome! [0] https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=7614130 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=7614130

eviluncle 2mo ago
Very cool, I love Scala and am quite sad that it isn't getting the interest and popularity it should.
- tharmas 2mo ago
  Me too. It's my favorite language by far. So expressive. Although that can be a downside.
- btreecat 2mo ago
  Instead of being sad, have you considered evaluating why that is?
  - eviluncle 1mo ago
    Would evaluating the reason(s) (a futile endeavor, if you ask me) replace my sadness? Hardly. It's a beautiful language I enjoy working with, and I'm saddened it isn't used and adopted by more people.
    - btreecat 1mo ago
      The goal isn't to replace, it's to understand so you can grow past it. If you start from the fact that people haven't adopted it, maybe it's not as beautiful or enjoyable to most developers.
      - eviluncle 1mo ago
        My guy, I am bummed that such a powerful and readable language isn't more popular. I don't need to grow past anything. Being bummed about stuff is part of life. The reasons it isn't more well adopted are many. The conclusion that therefor it's "not beautiful or enjoyable to most developers" is flawed and baseless. It assumes perfect meritocracy where the most beautiful and enjoyable languages for developers are the most popular ones.
        btreecat 1mo ago
        I agree, being bummed is part of life, so is growing past it. Only so much time for what could have been. I don't think it would require a "perfect meritocracy" for languages that are found "beautiful" and "enjoyable" to succeed if they are also "practical" and have accessable tooling. What makes languages popular is clearly multidimensional, where astehctics are certainty one dimension (even ugly languages get updates over time if there's enough energy behind the project) but so is timing, tooling, investment, community, etc. I think it's reasonable to conclude that whatever beautiful nature is/was there wasn't enough. In terms of weight of importance, or degree of agreement.

otobrglez 2mo ago

Beautiful. Thank you! =)

noelwelsh 2mo ago

Very nice!

camdenreslink 2mo ago

This is very cool, I've never heard of Scastie, I'll need to take a closer look at that. I created a similar platform for Python (actually submitted to HN earlier today: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=49083146 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=49083146)

sunshine-o 2mo ago

I used to be very fond of Scala 10-15 years ago. I also had to move on for professional reasons and haven't kept up for a long time. I am very surprised that there is not much traction anymore for Scala. I see about 10x more Clojure news or projects on Github so it is not just about the JVM... Could someone point to why?

wk_end 2mo ago
My impression is that, rightly or wrongly, it developed a bit of a negative reputation in various ways - too esoteric, slow builds, toxic community, etc. - so people stayed away from it. And meanwhile, Java the language improved and Kotlin came along as (arguably) the better better Java, so there became less of a need for it.
- morkalork 2mo ago
  Felt weirdly gate-kept as well.
- hocuspocus 2mo ago
  I'm pretty sure most companies don't care nor are aware about the community drama. Arguably Rust is worse, and it doesn't impact its uptake. Scala was sold through Akka and Spark, solving pretty complex technical challenges that are less relevant nowadays. In fact if you can avoid Akka and Spark, do. A lot of companies followed the hype without investing in the developer experience. Tech debt hurts more in Scala than in a bigger, slow moving language. After typical turnover, you get teams inheriting unmaintainable codebases. This leaves a bad impression. It can be avoided, Twitter built world-class SOA with Finagle, as well as a complete layer of libraries on top of Hadoop, at a time where the Scala ecosystem was even rougher. The fact Databricks doesn't care much about the language also did tremendous damage, forcing the community to cross-build against very outdated versions of Scala. In short, Scala was never a better Java and adopters who thought otherwise invariably got burned.
  - hnaccount19293 2mo ago
    > Arguably Rust is worse, and it doesn't impact its uptake. I've been in both communities and this isn't my experience at all. There was a significant period of time in the Scala community where you'd get insulted constantly if you didn't buy into an extremely rigid purely functional programming mindset. Even Odersky and Li Haoyi were continuously berated. The Scala community moderators were far too slow at dealing with these people and a ton of people left because of it. The Rust community is amazingly welcoming in comparison and the constant vitriolic flaming that occurred in the Scala community simply wouldn't be tolerated.

Magicrafter13 2mo ago

I had to work with Scala in one class in college and my goodness did I absolutely hate it. I didn't know you could make Java worse, but they found a way. Nothing against the people making tutorials ofc, I just hated the language.

tharmas 2mo ago
I'm surprised. Usually, the gripes are the compile times or the lack of tooling compared to other languages. For functional programming its quite expressive. ZIO and Typelevel Cats.
- Magicrafter13 2mo ago
  [dead]
jjpones 2mo ago
Funnily enough, as someone who absolutely hated my Java classes in college and ending up in a job that made me learn Scala, I just appreciated it as Java but better.

jjpones 2mo ago

Currently running an internal maintenance mode project with a Scala backend. The odd times I'm asked to look at it, I still find the code very beautiful.