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Scala (/ˈskɑːlə/ SKAH-lə)[6] is an object-functional programming language for general software applications. Scala has full support for functional programming and a very strong static type system. This allows programs written in Scala to be very concise and thus smaller in size than other general-purpose programming languages. Many of Scala's design decisions were inspired by criticism over the shortcomings of Java.
Scala source code is intended to be compiled to Java bytecode, so that the resulting executable code runs on a Java virtual machine. Java libraries may be used directly in Scala code and vice versa (Language interoperability). Like Java, Scala is object-oriented, and uses a curly-brace syntax reminiscent of the C programming language. Unlike Java, Scala has many features of functional programming languages like Scheme, Standard ML and Haskell, including currying, type inference, immutability, lazy evaluation, and pattern matching. It also has an advanced type system supporting algebraic data types, covariance and contravariance, higher-order types, and anonymous types. Other features of Scala not present in Java include operator overloading, optional parameters, named parameters, raw strings, and no checked exceptions.
The name Scala is a portmanteau of "scalable" and "language", signifying that it is designed to grow with the demands of its users.
Platforms and license
cala runs on the Java platform (Java Virtual Machine) and is compatible with existing Java programs. It also runs on Android smartphones.
The Scala software distribution, including compiler and libraries, is released under a BSD license.
Features (with reference to Java)
Scala has the same compilation model as Java and C#, namely separate compilation and dynamic class loading, so that Scala code can call Java libraries, or .NET libraries in the .NET implementation.
Scala's operational characteristics are the same as Java's. The Scala compiler generates byte code that is nearly identical to that generated by the Java compiler. In fact, Scala code can be decompiled to readable Java code, with the exception of certain constructor operations. To the JVM, Scala code and Java code are indistinguishable. The only difference is a single extra runtime library, scala-library.jar.
Scala adds a large number of features compared with Java, and has some fundamental differences in its underlying model of expressions and types, which make the language theoretically cleaner and eliminate a number of "corner cases" in Java. From the Scala perspective, this is practically important because a number of additional features in Scala are also available in C#. Examples include:
Scala source code is intended to be compiled to Java bytecode, so that the resulting executable code runs on a Java virtual machine. Java libraries may be used directly in Scala code and vice versa (Language interoperability). Like Java, Scala is object-oriented, and uses a curly-brace syntax reminiscent of the C programming language. Unlike Java, Scala has many features of functional programming languages like Scheme, Standard ML and Haskell, including currying, type inference, immutability, lazy evaluation, and pattern matching. It also has an advanced type system supporting algebraic data types, covariance and contravariance, higher-order types, and anonymous types. Other features of Scala not present in Java include operator overloading, optional parameters, named parameters, raw strings, and no checked exceptions.
The name Scala is a portmanteau of "scalable" and "language", signifying that it is designed to grow with the demands of its users.
Platforms and license
cala runs on the Java platform (Java Virtual Machine) and is compatible with existing Java programs. It also runs on Android smartphones.
The Scala software distribution, including compiler and libraries, is released under a BSD license.
Features (with reference to Java)
Scala has the same compilation model as Java and C#, namely separate compilation and dynamic class loading, so that Scala code can call Java libraries, or .NET libraries in the .NET implementation.
Scala's operational characteristics are the same as Java's. The Scala compiler generates byte code that is nearly identical to that generated by the Java compiler. In fact, Scala code can be decompiled to readable Java code, with the exception of certain constructor operations. To the JVM, Scala code and Java code are indistinguishable. The only difference is a single extra runtime library, scala-library.jar.
Scala adds a large number of features compared with Java, and has some fundamental differences in its underlying model of expressions and types, which make the language theoretically cleaner and eliminate a number of "corner cases" in Java. From the Scala perspective, this is practically important because a number of additional features in Scala are also available in C#. Examples include: