Java 8 vs Scala — Part I λE

Finally, after several years of waiting, Java 8 comes with higher-order functions I love Java but I have to admit that Java syntax is quite verbose compared to other modern languages. Now, with lambda expressions, I can write code that is shorter while still readable (sometimes…

Image masking with SVG

A few years back, I was reluctant to use SVG files because, with all new web technologies, no one really supported them. Also, there was very little documentation and very few tutorials. However, over the recent months I’ve been hearing more on how SVG has come a long way, even replacing…

The Story of Building Compile-Time JSON Serializer

The road to monad-nature for OO washouts

There is a growing monad cottage industry engaged in popularizing the eponimous logical construct. With so much smoke, there has to be fuel, and indeed there is. Being a half-convert of the former monotheistic OO persuasion (now I serve a pantheon) I walk a…

Zappos Magic Checkout Project

We love to do interesting things here at Zappos, and we certainly love finding new ways to WOW our…

A Lean Approach to Creating an API

Last year I picked up a project that needed some extra functionality. The project was to take a small portion of our product data, manually add some partner specific data, then make it available to the partner as a restful API interface. The partner relationship was…

Anatomy, care and feeding of the State monad

Descending deeper down the rabbit hole of striving to understand monad-nature in Scala, it’s time to take a look at a monad that is not a collection, nor an Option, nor an Either, nor a Future. The State monad seems to qualify. Of course, the scalaz…