There is a lot of documentation on http://scala.epfl.ch/docu/index.html, including the specification, the rationale, and “Scala by Example”, which includes a number of code examples.

NSC Visualization

• Scala Documents on scala-lang.org
• Language Reference
• Programming in Scala book by Odersky, Spoon, * Venners

Here’s an extremely simple Scala <i>script</i> (not a full-fledged program):

import javax.swing._;

object HelloWorld extends JFrame( "Greetings" ) {
   def main( args: Array[String] ) {
      setDefaultCloseOperation( JFrame.EXIT_ON_CLOSE )
      add( new JLabel( "Hello World" ) )
      pack()
      setVisible( true )
  }
}

HelloWorld.main(null)

Copy it into a file called “Hello.scala”, and on the command line, run “scala Hello.scala”. You’ll get a small Swing window appearing.

A few other things to note:

• Most of the calls in this program are java calls, it’s very easy to use Java from Scala.
• You don’t typically need to end a line with a semicolon. And the import is javax.swing._, not javax.swing.*.
• Finally, because this is a script and not a full program, you need the final line. Scripts don’t automatically execute the “main” method.

Of course, a simpler script to achieve the same result (but which doesn’t show quite as much of Scala) is just this:

import javax.swing._

val frame = new JFrame( "Greetings" )
frame.add( new JLabel( "Hello World" ) )
frame.pack()
frame.setVisible( true )

which even works in the REPL (You do need to remove the call to set the default close operation to EXIT_ON_CLOSE, so the REPL doesn’t exit too.)

Scala procedures, functions, and methods are all introduced with the def keyword. Procedures and methods that don’t return a value (technically, they actually return an object of type Unit, similar to void in Java except that it’s an object like any other) look like this:

def procName(paramName1: type1, paramName2: type2, . . .) {
  ...body...
}

or

def procName(paramName1: type1, paramName2: type2, . . .):Unit = {
  ...body...
}

Functions and methods that do return a value are defined in a similar way:

def funName(paramName1: type1, paramName2: type2, . . .) : returnType = {
  ...body...
}

Finally, as you may have guessed by the fact that we refer to procedures and functions as well as to methods: Scala allows procedures and functions that are not part of a class definition. Very nice!

These are all different types of “class level” OO concepts.

Classes define types and provide a template for object creation and initialization.

TODO

Traits are composable units of behaviour, a class can extend multiple traits. Traits do not have constructors and are similar to Java’s abstract classes (in content) and Java´s interfaces (in usage). They are implemented via “mix-in” composition.

TODO

Objects are instances of classes and are created at runtime.

TODO

Companion objects are the module (static part) associated with a class.

TODO

Case classes are a special type of class suited to structural pattern matching. They implicitly define a factory method with the name of the class, implicitly get a val prefix on parameters (constructor params become object constants) and proper redefinitions of: toString, hashCode, and equals methods.

TODO

Enumerations are lighter that (case) classes and similar to Java´s enum

 //Definition
 object enumName extends Enumeration {
    val v1, v2, v3, . . . = Value
 }
 //Usage
 val d: enumName.Value //type
 d = enumName.v1 //values