"objected-oriented programming" entries

3 simple reasons why you need to learn Scala

How Scala will help you grow as a Java developer.

by Brian Foster | @brianatoreilly | March 12, 2015

Editor’s Note: If you’re a Java developer these days, one who is fully entrenched within the Java SE or Java EE development environment, you’ve grown accustomed to waiting for new features and updates. Change happens at the speed of dial-up, which is a blessing for legacy code, servers, and software infrastructure that thrive on maintaining profitable grace through clunky predictability. You may have even dabbled with a JVM language, such as Scala or Clojure, thinking you could do more with less code — and you can — but then you’ve realized the barrier to entry is steep compared with the needs of meeting day-to-day responsibilities. Why learn something new, you’ve thought, when there’s no strong incentive to change?

With Scala Days nearly upon us, the Fort Mason Center in San Francisco will be awash with developers excited to share ideas and explore the latest use-cases in this “best of both worlds” language. Scala has come a long way from its humble origins at the École Polytechnique Fédérale de Lausanne, but with the fusion of functional and object-oriented programming continuing to pick up steam across leading-edge enterprises and start-ups, there’s no better time than right now to stop dabbling with code snippets and begin mastering the basics. Here are three simple reasons why learning Scala will help you grow as a Java developer, as excerpted from Jason Swartz’s new book Learning Scala.

1. Your code will be better

You will be able to start using functional programming techniques to stabilize your applications and reduce issues that arise from unintended side effects. By switching from mutable data structures to immutable data structures and from regular methods to pure functions that have no effect on their environment, your code will be safer, more stable, and much easier to comprehend.
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Why Ruby blocks exist, part III

Never forget to clean up again!

by Jay McGavren | May 7, 2014

Previous posts in this series used Ruby blocks to iterate over the items in a collection. We’re going to wrap up by showing a very different side of blocks – resource allocation and cleanup.

Close the door!

Here we have a Ruby class representing a refrigerator. Prior to accessing a refrigerator object’s contents via its `contents` method, you have to call its `open` method to open the door. (Sensible enough.) Read more…

Why use Scala

Alex Payne on Scala's upside and combining object-oriented and functional capabilities.

by Laurie Petrycki | @lauriep | +Laurie Petrycki | June 14, 2012

Alex Payne, co-author of the "Programming Scala," talks about the advantages of using Scala.