My Experience Learning Scala

Should i?????

Yeah at last have sum up power from the great goddess of coding ,so have started my very first write up on medium.

As a human being like anyone else on planet , I am always striving to be head in the game,to be able to use modern programming languages to improve my mystical knowledge with that which is abstract.

Hence I stumbled or better I came across an enlightened group called Lagos Scala meet-up group, I was introduce to this great programming language with much promises in the future. A language that is still relatively new in my ecosystem. So without much thoughts ,already filled with dopamine , I took my sailing boat and sail straight one way to the mystical land called SCALA(shh! pronounce it with care,it’s a powerful magic word).

my cute little sailing boat….

I was handed over a map by the local priest of Scala in my area, a book written by no one else but my the great founder of this great mystical movement name (Guru Martin Odersky) name “programming in Scala”, I was very happy and excited that my journey to the mystical land will be smooth and storm free.

Experience Reading The Map:

With the book , I did all that is necessary to set up my best pal (my computer),ready to produce some great kung-fu warrior scala codes with great super-powers moves (I was wrong). After days of digging I had the following side effects(hey am not talking about side effect functions ):

SIDE EFFECTS AS A RESULT OF READING THE HOLY GRAIL:

My Brain was literally undergoing stress….

• Conflict between Java and Scala, I never got the opportunity to program in Java, I programmed mostly with c# and python, so I was force to asked myself what the hell is this Java / Scala ? is there a contest for supremacy or world domination?

Come on guys am here to learn the mysterious language stop bringing java on very single line.

• Conflict between imperative and functioning style of programming, although Scala is design to be a hybrid between imperative programming and functioning programming, to be able to bridge the two style of programming. But for someone with an imperative programming style learning the middle way of life is a hard nut to crack.(But modern world want us to be able to accept all political thoughts and appreciate them as politically correct), so have to be diplomatic with my assumed enemy functional programming style.

• Conflict between var and val, mutable and immutable. I have come to appreciate the idea of trying as much as possible to avoid var.
• After digging deep into the holy grail book without any practical exercises, I came to a funny self-awareness that it will take me years to fully put this language to a meaningful use, I was so impatience and eager to use Scala in a productive way.

• Final and most important of all the side effects I suffered learning Scala with the holy grail book, I became so so IMPATIENCE.

Then left in the sea of emptiness ,contemplating if my time was wasted ,the great goddess calypso came to my boat and handed a map(a book name:Scala for the Impatient) by Cay S. Horstmann to me (Yeah am impatient so this book make sense to me). Finally I was able to get to the promise land, I was able to dine with the language itself. Life was then filled with fun for me.

Are rabbit impatient?

Conclusion: The above write up does not try in any way to promote the ideal or notion that “programming in Scala” by Martin Odersky, is not necessary ,to be honest is a must read book for any serious Scala developer. In fact is a bitter pill one have to swallowed as one learn and master this great language.