You’ve heard that Java 8 now has the main prerequisite for functional programming: functions. But you’re too busy writing Scala code to dig into the details, so we’ve put together a crib sheet on what’s in Java 8 from a Scala developer perspective.
You’ve heard that Java 8 now has the main prerequisite for functional programming: functions. But you’re too busy writing Scala code to dig into the details, so we’ve put together a crib sheet on what’s in Java 8 from a Scala developer perspective.
Hiring good developers is hard, and hiring good Scala developers is even harder. However, this doesn’t mean companies building out their Scala teams are stuck sweeping crumbs off the table. I believe there are a lot of great developers out there, but reaching them requires a change from what I see most companies doing.
I don’t believe there is one hiring process that works for all cases. I see two main cases: finding junior developers to fill out a Scala team, or finding a senior developer / team lead to provide oversight for a team adopting Scala. Let’s address each in turn.
It’s been a busy month for Underscore. We’ve seen a lot of different clients but one constant is that everyone has difficulty hiring. Scala is hot right now and demand outstrips supply. So how do you find Scala developers? I’ve put some together some thoughts on how to hire more effectively. Have some war stories or tips about hiring? Add them as comments to the post.
So, what’s in the newsletter? To begin with there is a summary of recent blogs posts and events from us, as well as details of upcoming events. I thought it would also be interesting to talk about some work in progress that isn’t at the state where we’d blog about it. So the second half of the newsletter has some discussion of the scalaz-stream project and Akka cluster. I hope you enjoy reading this! Do let me know what you like and what you don’t like. Replying to this email will go directly to me.
At the beginning of this year I started rewriting our Scala training material. Like many introductory programming courses ours was structured around language features. This is the most straightforward way to write a tutorial but, particularly in a language like Scala, this structure doesn’t work well at all. It’s easy to overwhelm the student with details, like the specifics of operator precedence and associativity, that have almost no practical significance for day-to-day programming. All this noise makes it very difficult for the student to pick out the important concepts about how to structure programs written in Scala.