Java
as an object-oriented, class-based programming language enables
application developers to efficiently ‘write once, run everywhere’
(compiled Java code) for client-server web apps. Scala, on the other
hand, gets full support for functional programming and is often
considered competitive for building general software applications. While
both are meticulously designed as multi-paradigm, general purpose
programming languages, developers often speculate if Scala can
practically do everything that Java does, or if Scala functions as
greatly as Java?
Java is easy to learn but Scala is easy to code:
This is the most important consideration that we must think for. Java
is undoubtedly the simplest language of the industry. Any programmer
having slightest idea on C or C++ can easily write Java code without
much research; but what makes it terrific in some scenarios? That is the
code length! Though Java Syntax is simple; but it demands more codes
from the Java developer to write a block or task. This is the biggest
drawback of Java and now, if we are going to compare it with Scala then
the primary concern is this (besides other features of course). On the
contrary, Scala is never so easy to start with; but, once you learn it,
you can do whatever you need in less time and most importantly with very
less lines of code. Scala is little difficult to learn especially its
Syntax is not that much familiar as of Java; but they are highly
optimized and compressed so that the Scala developer can get benefited
from them. So, the initial investment of time for learning Scala is
worth every penny when we consider its future aspects. Again, there is
no doubt that Scala comes integrated with an extremely strong static
type system, but they both embed different syntaxes (although you may
see almost identical bytecodes (when compiled) generated by these two
languages). However, let’s have a deeper insight into what makes them
similar or dissimilar, if at all.
1. Transporting
to Scala from Java has its benefits in several ways; most importantly
the former’s embedded compiler magic. The feature basically allows web
developers to keep their code simple and neat. As a programming
language, Scala makes it really easy for developers to model their
things in OO (Object Oriented), even if they are not relying on its
functional programming structure. In Scala, everything is method and
that eliminates unnecessary mess from an application making it not only
clean but also well maintainable.
2. An
edge that Scala developers often have over Java developers is its
integrated high order functionality - which basically empowers Scala as a
programming language, and provides users with powerful tools to
extricate their issues in the language. Scala never demand more coding
from the developer; in fact, it desperately encourages Scala developers
to write less code for any task. On the contrary, Java has a not so good
reputation in the industry as a language that demands more codes, more
efforts and more time from experienced Java developers.
The programming language Scala also provides its users with a strong
type inference, anonymous function literals, variance annotation, and
implicit definition and conversion.
3. Without
two thoughts, users can gain as many functional programming benefits
from Scala as from Java. However, Scala renders high immutability -
which actually helps with trimming down the bugs and the complexities of
concurrency. It is also considered as a powerful language to boost your
productivity. Its inbuilt mechanism plays an important role in code
optimization, code refactoring and performance boost for the application
which is extremely helpful for everyone. There are collection methods
that largely diminish boilerplate, powerful collections framework, and
an annotation that can easily write meaningful equals.
4. Both
Scala and Java use same package and feature the same compilation
models. However, it is Scala’s type system that makes it more useful as a
programming language than Java. Using Scala, developers can seamlessly
abstract over type constructors, and even enable a range of class
solutions that generally look not feasible in Java. The object-oriented
language even helps lessen the incidences of duplication, undoubtedly
one of the most useful features of Scala.
5. Scala
acts more like a blueprint language, for it takes care of almost
everything about an app development. It’s more like, you simply design
your application, and the embedded magic compiler will take care of all
other responsibilities and get the job done for you. At the same time,
it is almost as powerful as Clojure. But, it is definitely more
comfortable to read for users who have a background more into Java, C,
and C++.
6. Although
Java 8 incorporates a number of approaches that are analogous to the
approaches incorporated by Scala, the latter sticks strong due to its
‘write less, do more’ approach. The fact that Scala is a functional
programming language makes it any day more of a favorable choice for the
developers to write all steps they need in order to accomplish their
objectives. It also lends support to monads - often referred as
programmable semicolons, enabling developers to construct pipelines that
help process data in steps (in which each action is adorned by
additional processing rules rendered by the monad).
7. And
of course, the most important feature ‘pattern matching’ makes Scala a
supreme choice amongst programmers. The language also offers
interoperability with NoSQL, the REPL, components that solve a lot of
limitations of Java’s object model, infix syntax -> English-looking
DSLs, and operator overloading.
Our Final Verdict:
There
are many reasons as to why you should consider switching to Scala if
you are a Java developer. Scala provides a lot of advantages over Java,
and has undoubtedly been gaining more popularity. But we cannot overlook
the flaws that come with Scala at the same time, with the state of
which; SBT and super slow compilation are the main issues.
However,
if you ask us ‘can we do everything with Scala that we can do with
Java’, our answer would be ‘yes, you can & probably a lot more.’
And
if you only want to build a project that combines the best of both Java
and Scala, you can do by developing a project in Eclipse - where some
Scala methods use Java methods, and some Java methods use Scala methods.
And yes, don’t forget to use Maven to take care of your project in
Eclipse.
If you are looking forward to build applications using Java or Scala, it will be in your best interests to hire offshore software development services
of Mindfire Solutions that has been in the business for the last 16
years. Apart from that, it has a formidable reputation in building
user-friendly applications in both Java as well as Scala.