Scala for Java Developers: Transition Up!

This lecture is the beginning of the code section. In this class we will cover basic, fundamental principles of Scala, such as values vs. variables, basic types, and the REPL. Get ready to type away!

In this lecture we'll show you how to set up your functions and objects for the extremely powerful functional and object-oriented programming paradigm that is combined in Scala. You'll learn how to handle and use functions, objects, and loops, to hit the ground running.

In Scala, all functions and function values (including numbers and other primitives) are objects, which is an immensely powerful concept.

Then we'll also look at for comprehensions -- a much more powerful extension of the "advanced for loop" in Java.

In this lecture you'll see how easy it is to set up higher-order functions in Scala and immediately start using them. You'll also see how powerful deeply ingrained concepts like lists, maps, hashmaps, and arrays are in Scala. You can use higher-order functions directly as functional arguments in those collections, and you get tremendous performance, including instant parallelism, if you choose so!

In this lesson we will cover the basic differences between Java classes and interfaces, and Scala classes, objects, and traits. Get ready for mind-boggling simplifications and easy-to-read, intuitive, straight-forward usage of classes, objects, interfaces, and mixins.

This lesson will focus entirely on actors, a much more powerful, flexible, and reliable concurrency system than Java's threads.

Practical Outlook: how to incorporate the Java -> Scala transition smoothly in our daily workflow, and use of the REPL for TDD and EDD. Fasten your seatbelts.