Be fair to Scala, do not expect a better Java

To some Java developers Scala has become an alternative to Java as a programming language. So they started learning it and do the first steps in writing some Scala code. To most of them the next step might be the first contact with a Scala library and hopefully a Scala test framework. But right after the first contact, I here them screaming. Oh my god, this library uses all the tricky features Scala comes with. Do the developers not care about readability?

Some lines of Scala code

What is the problem in Scala? To understand it, lets take a brief look to some Scala code.

object Application extends App with PathConversion with StringConversion {
  Files.write("log", "Hello world\n", APPEND)
}

This code appends a line to a file. It uses the new file API introduced in Java 7 to do this.

The write method only accepts a Path object and a byte[] as parameters. The trick is done in the traits StringConversion and PathConversion, which provide implicit methods to convert Strings.

trait StringConversion {
  implicit def bytes(text: String) = text.getBytes(Charsets.UTF_8)
}

trait PathConversion {
  implicit def stringAsPath(path: String) = Paths.get(path)
}

The methods in the traits are called implicit, thus the compiler will create byte code, that calls these methods. But these calls are not written explicitly in the code.

What Java developers do not like

The above code snippets are using a nice features, that Scala provides and that Java does not. But when Java developers start using Scala, they often look at it as a better Java and thus they expect to use their existing skills.

One problem are the implicit calls to methods. In the Java world static typing is not just used for type checking at compile time. It is also used as an implicit type documentation. So a Java developer would look at the signature of the write method and see that it only accepts objects of type Path and byte[] as parameters. But a look to the method call shows, that Strings are passed to it.

From a Java developer’s point of view, this is not easy to understand. Where is this implicit conversion of types done? A Java developer might think, this reduces readability. But this is not true.

It is not Scala’s fault

Scala is not a better Java. It is a completely different language. As any other language too, Scala also has a community around it. There are libraries and APIs designed for Scala and they are using the features of the language. This is exactly how it should be.

The way a developer works with Java is not the way a developer works with Ruby or Python or even JavaScript. Many Ruby developers use a text editor instead of a fat IDE, while Java without any IDE is really painful. Using the declared types of method parameters to figure out, what you can pass into this method is also a Java way of working. In Ruby, Python or JavaScript, there are no declared types. There is even no type checking at compile time. But people know how to use methods and classes in these languages as well.

Scala’s type system is very powerful, while Java’s is not. It allows you to do things like the above and it is good, when Scala developers are using these features in their code and APIs. But the power of Scala’s type system makes it also complex. The compiler can check the types, while the developer may not understand them easily from the method signature.

Learn to work the Scala way

There is only one solution to this problem. Java developers must learn how to work with a language, that has a type system different from Java’s. They have to change their mind and extend their skills.

Well, if you do not get comfortable with this, Scala is not your language. Take your hands off and go home to your Java code.

What do you think? How do you solve the parameter documentation in your favorite programming language? And how do you figure out how to use a method?