- OSGi and Scala
- Lifty
- Minesweeper Problem
Lifty especially looks like a great tool for faster creation of Lift apps using SBT. Certainly something I'm going to be installing.
Scala Test Frameworks and DSLs
The first session I attended was an group discussion about some of the test frameworks for Scala. We looked at both Specs and ScalaTest and compared their approaches and the differences in their DSL offerings. We then looked at ScalaCheck as an alternative solution for testing. Especially useful when you need to generate a sequence of values to test against.
Finally we took DSLs even further by looking at test narratives for making tests clearer. For example you can write direct in the test case:
def test() = {
Alive cell dies when there are 3 neighbours
}
Is implemented by a DSL such that Scala converts it into the following series of chained method calls:
Alive.cell(dies).when(there).are(3).neighbours
A very interesting approach.
Monds, Functional Concepts, Type Concepts
I decided to have a go at hosting my own session to try to get some clarifications on a number of topics that have been bugging me for a while. I'm coming from a Java background and thus the functional elements of Scala along with its much more complex type system are two areas where I have had the most difficult transformation.
The aim of the session was to get those people who wanted clarifications on topics to post them on a whiteboard and then get members from the audience who were experienced in these areas to explain what they mean and how to use them in 5-10 minutes each. The session started well with some good audience participation. After a while it then dropped down to just Kevin Wright and Jon Pretty doing most of the work (thanks guys!).
During the hour (and the extra bit that we ran over into lunchtime) we covered:
- Monads
- Partial Functions
- Currying and Partially Applied Functions
- Monoids and Type Classes
- Implicit Conversions
- Self Types
- Covariance and Contravariance
I learnt a huge amount from this session and a lot of the stuff I was only partially clear on now makes much more sense. I'm pleased I proposed the session as it was exactly what I was looking for.
Minesweeper
The third session of the day was a great talk by Kevin Wright (@thecoda) about implementing the Minesweeper game in Scala and Lift. An excellent example of how to write really great Scala and provide an elegant solution to the problem. Very interesting to see how this was done with only immutable structures and how ajax and Lift were combined in the front-end implementation.
I'd certainly recommend visiting Kevin's github page to explore this code in more detail.
Type Classes and the Cake Pattern
Another great presentation, this time by Jon Pretty. The first part was a more detail look at Type Classes and the Monoid pattern. This got pretty in-depth, but Jon explained it well. I've since built up an example of using Type Classes to solve a real world problem that I encountered. I'll post a description next week.
The second part of the session was the Cake pattern. This is a great approach to building componentised Scala applications as an alternative to dependency injection solutions like Spring or Guice. I'm already very familiar with the Cake pattern as I've done a fair bit of experimenting with it on my 'discala' experimental project. I'm going to follow up with Jon to perhaps explore some ideas in more detail.
Overall I'd have to say that Scala Lift Off was a great two days. There's a very vibrant Scala community in London and across Europe. I learnt lots and was very privileged to be in the same room as some very talented people. Also a big mention to SkillsMatter for hosting such a great event and providing some fantastic facilities. I'm looking forward to next year already!
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