[infinispan-dev] scala code in Infinispan

[Mircea Markus]

On 31 Jan 2013, at 11:53, Manik Surtani wrote:

> 
> On 31 Jan 2013, at 11:45, Mircea Markus <mmarkus at redhat.com> wrote:
> 
>> Hi,
>> 
>> 
>> The REST module is written in Scala (both main + tests). We have some *test* contributions written in Java (thanks  mlinhard).
>> There was an IRC discussion on whether it's worth migrating the Java contribution to Scala code or not. 
>> 
>> Pros for migrating the contribution from Java to Scala:
>> - the REST module is written in Scala. Contributing these tests in Java would make the module bi-lingual, potentially confusing future contributors
> 
> Why?  You can choose what to write your tests in.
> 
>> - even though this is not the case with this particular contribution, there might be code duplications between the scala test suite and java test suite.
> 
> Don't create separate test suites.  Put them in the same class path - e.g., src/test/scala - you can have .java files in here too, they will be compiled together, run together, can reference one another.
> 
>> 
>> Cons for migrating the contribution from Java to Scala:
>> - there are contributors that are not familiar with Scala or are more proficient with Java(such as mlinhard). Forcing them to contribute in a language they are not familiar with would put them off
> 
> +1
> 
>> - my general feeling over time was that people (including me) are not very enthusiastic about debugging and extending Scala code. So IMO if there's a choice between scala and java  (in the scope of the scala modules) we should stick to Java wherever possible (such as this contribution). 
> 
> That should not be a hard and fast rule for all modules.  I agree that some modules (like core) should just stick to Java.

I don't think that encouraging scala code is good purely for maintenance reasons. If there's a choice, it should be java. Not saying that learning a new language is not cool - but in practice people are a bit put off by maintaining Scala code. Its not only about what the writer of the code prefers as a language: it's more important what the maintainers of the code 
will has to work with.

Cheers,
-- 
Mircea Markus
Infinispan lead (www.infinispan.org)




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