I agree with everything you say. I think functional vs imperative is a matter of taste, though. Even I tend to incline towards Functional Programming (FP) in most scenarios, but in some cases imperative languages are 'good enough'.
And since my background used to be client-side Javascript mainly (I was a front-end designer), I find it fairly confusing to switch myself between the two mindsets (FP and IP), which like you said is something more of a personal preference.
And like I said, I still love Scala, for the reasons you've cited. But then again, there are a couple of reasons which I have in mind for going with Go.
The main problem with Scala for me:
1) Difficult to find good Scala engineers. IF you find one, you still need to figure out if he's comfortable with the Functional or Imperative model.
2) Syntax:
This is an example from one of my previous commenters (dxbydt, thank you) on my thread:
scala> def test1 = println ("hello world")
scala> def test2(f: =>Unit) = println ("hello world")
scala> def test3(f:Unit) = println ("hello world")
scala> test1
hello world
scala> test2()
hello world
scala> test3()
hello world
scala> val t = test2 _
scala> t apply Unit
hello world
scala> t()
hello world
scala> t(())
hello world
It is mostly a personal preference, but I still feel too many ways to do one thing is a recipe for disaster.
With all that said, I know of people writing a Scala program and not touching it for a year or two unless they wanted to update their OS on their servers.
Nice example. It combines aliases for the Unit type with the sort of hybrid function/value nature of Unit to produce a truly baffling array of options. =)
I'll agree that this set of cases does not reflect well on Scala; at the very least, it supports your point that the syntax is too large. Still, I don't mind it too much. Although the "multiple ways to skin a cat" nature of Scala means you can get very WTF-y code like above, it also means that you can construct a list by writing `1 :: 2 :: 3 :: Nil`, or send an actor a message with the Erlang-inspired `actor ! Message("hello")`.
I don't want to be an apologist for it, though. You're correct that there are some nasty corner cases. Using Scala for serious work is difficult if people don't agree on a consistent style.
And since my background used to be client-side Javascript mainly (I was a front-end designer), I find it fairly confusing to switch myself between the two mindsets (FP and IP), which like you said is something more of a personal preference.
And like I said, I still love Scala, for the reasons you've cited. But then again, there are a couple of reasons which I have in mind for going with Go.
The main problem with Scala for me:
1) Difficult to find good Scala engineers. IF you find one, you still need to figure out if he's comfortable with the Functional or Imperative model.
2) Syntax:
This is an example from one of my previous commenters (dxbydt, thank you) on my thread:
It is mostly a personal preference, but I still feel too many ways to do one thing is a recipe for disaster.With all that said, I know of people writing a Scala program and not touching it for a year or two unless they wanted to update their OS on their servers.