James Gosling: I like Scala, but my big problem is that the type theory has gotten really complicated. The language lawyers are driving the bus. It's turning into something that journeyman developers and even people like me�I started getting into the Scala stuff and my head starts to spin and I go, "what?"
During a meeting in the Community Corner (java.net booth) with James
Gosling, a participant asked an interesting question: "Which
Programming Language would you use *now* on top of JVM, except Java?".
The answer was surprisingly fast and very clear: - Scala.
Interesting interview with Gosling that is about 30 min long.
http://hw.libsyn.com/p/9/b/f/9bfb09d287973a30/episode46.mp3I couldn't find transcript but he was asked quite a few questions about Scala.
He mentioned that Scala could be used just like Java and that's blessing and a curse.
It's blessing because the similarity will allow Java programmers to get comfortable with Scala pretty quickly.
The curse is that they will not learn to use Scala as a functional language.
He than talks about functional languages.
"Pure functional languages will make your brain hurt."
"People that like them are the type of people that liked calculus in school."
So he thinks functional programming is good but difficult jump for most people.
He mentioned that the JVM was the important part of his work and it was really influenced by Smalltalk and Lisp.
The Java language was something that had to appeal to C and C++ developers. Syntax wise.
Gosling and Doug Lea are on the advisory board of TypeSafe - the company behind Scala.
