Don’t let some chapters put you off learning Scala!

A few months ago, I heard about Scala and wanted to know more. So I started reading “Scala by Example” but only up to chapter 2. I was already confused after the first chapter and the second was just over the top. For me, learning a new language belongs into the category of “learning for fun” and not crunching seemly weird concepts that don’t apply to any of my current challenges. It took me a while to recover and start over again with the introduction published on Artima and I’m still going full steam ahead with Scala…

To save you the delay I experienced, follow this order:

1. If still in doubt that Scala is worth the pain of learning another language, get convinced by the tour.
2. By now, you want to learn the language in a more structured way. You are ready for excellent Artima article “First Steps to Scala“. Don’t start with anything from the Scala homepage!
3. During reading the introduction, your fingers might get nervous. Calm them down with installing Scala.
4. The HelloWorld sample shows you quickly the use of the installed tools.
5. Ok, you can start tackling the tutorials page: Start with the 15-page tutorial.pdf.
6. Installing the eclipse plugin is also a good idea. The Quick Tour “Working with Eclipse and the Scala Plugin” shows you everything. But don’t expect too much from the plugin: It’s currently the worst thing in the Scala ecosystem.
7. Ultimately, download Programming in Scala. This pdf joins the “Scala by Example” and the language specifications, so you have all in one document.
8. And finally, I learned a lot browsing and tweaking the source of lift, a web framework.

After working through all those steps, chapter 1 and 2 become great readings.

Happy learning!