Scala Days Recap and Video

Recap

I really had a blast at Scala Days this year. I met so many wonderful people, saw many wonderful talks, and had a ton of fun. I met so many great people, I can't possibly mention them all. My best memory is drinking a glass of wine at a bar with all the Scala Days attendees, when from out of the blue come Matthias Nehlsen to greet me. We have known each other on Google+ for some time, but had never met before in person. It felt like one of those Dora episodes where they all jump into the Fairy Book and go to Fairy Land.

I also got to speak to Dick Wall a bit, which was sort of a Wayne's World moment for me ("We're not worthy!"), as I used to be an avid Java Posse listener before I started writing mostly Scala. Great podcast that really helped me keep in touch with what was going on in the Java community. For Scala, I listen to the Scalawags, and I eagerly look forward to the resumption of the Scala Types podcast.

I really loved Rod Johnson's keynote. Scala poetry is a beautiful idea. I'll try to write some one day. The only point in his keynote that I question is that startups are not going to be using Scala. I don't object out of reason, but from the observation that there are many startups in the Cambridge/Boston area that are taking up Scala. There were too many great talks to start telling stories, but I won't forget asking a stupid question at Heather Miller's Pickles and Spores talk for a while. There are still many talks that I need to catch up with online. In many slots it was hard to pick between sessions!

Taming the Cake Pattern

I haven't got up the nerve to watch my Cake Pattern talk online yet! There's one particular moment when I glance up and notice a couple people walking out, and a little grin comes over my face. "Nothing I can do about it now!" The talk is a little technical, especially the first half or so, but I think the people that kept with me really enjoyed it. Next time I promise I'll give a less challenging talk! Anyway, now you can pause and rewind. And you can get a copy of the slides here. There are some extra slides at the end that you might try to work out for yourself.

It turns out that actually taming this cake is going to take a little more time, as the macros I need to do it will not be in 2.11. But I'm hopeful that they will make 2.12, and as soon as I hear that they will be there (experimental or otherwise), I will pick up congeal again. For now, it's on ice.

Lisst[A]

With the cake pattern out of my way for a while, I plan on turning my blogging attention to another Monads in Scala post. The first post on Maybe[A] is my most popular blog post by far, with the first cake pattern post running a clear second. So getting back to monads for a bit will be a good thing. The next monad in the Haskell book is List. I'm looking forward to getting past this one because I really want to get to the IO and State Monads, which follow List.