Why does Scala have very little enthusiasm about it?

Question

I've noticed over time that Clojure users have nothing but massive enthusiasm for the language. Yet it seems most Scala users don't even really care too much for the language. A few people have told me "It's better than having to use Java.". I'm not sure why Clojure has so much enthusiasm about it yet Scala has hardly any. It ruins any motivation that I have to learn to the language. I don't care all that much for a language to use "Because it's better than having to use Java.". What do you think? I've not known about Scala long enough to measure how much the popularity has increased or decreased over time. What are your thoughts on the language? I'm especially interested in hearing from people who use the language.

Thanks.

EDIT: Obviously this post was more offensive than I intended. I'm not trying to put down either language, nor am I saying that Scala doesn't have people behind it. I'm just saying that over time it seems to me that less people are enthusiastic about Scala as they are with Clojure for instance. I'm not making "Unjustified assumptions" or making a "Dirty move in debate" I'm just asking for theories.

If I had known this would cause so much dispute I wouldn't have even wrote the thread. I apologize for any misunderstandings. I would last like to point out that I /do/ like Scala, and Clojure. I'm learning Scala as we speak. Thanks for your posts, the parts with theories at least.

EDIT: September 30th: I do indeed apologize for any animosity I earned towards me. This question has been wildly misunderstood. I love Scala, and think it an amazing language. I was speaking from my own observations, and it appears my own observations were apparently wrong. You're welcome to continue voting this question down, but I would delete it if I was capable of doing so, but I'm not.

Answer 1

I think there exist users who are pretty passionate about Scala. Daniel Spiewak writes a lot of blog articles about the language, and the Twitter people often talk about rewriting portions of their software in Scala. The big reason that Clojure may seem, in comparison, to generate more enthusiasm is because, well, Clojure is a dialect of Lisp, and Lispers tend to be very passionate about their language. I think that idea is key: a lot of Clojure programmers use Clojure because they love Lisp, not because they hate Java, whereas a lot of Scala programmers (not all, but a lot) use Scala not because they love object-oriented functional languages, but because they don't want to use Java.

Answer 2

I've been programming in scala full time for about a year. I have nothing but massive enthusiasm for it. Do you ever think that maybe people are enjoying using it too much to spends lots of time on advocacy? At this late date I'd think people would have learned to be more skeptical of hype; the corollary of that lesson is not to assume too much from the lack of it. (Which is not to say scala has not been hyped, but most of the hype appears to originate with people who don't use it...)

Answer 3

Scala's great. I love it!

(and I've also been coding Scala pretty much full time for over a year now)

Answer 4

This is a classic "dirty" move in debate. Assume a premise and then ask a question based on that premise. "Exactly when did you stop beating your wife?"

The question needs to be edited

I'm not sure why Clojure has so much enthusiasm about it yet Scala has hardly any.
[citation needed]

I'm not going to question whether Clojure users have enthusiasm. My experience is that they do. And rightly so, it's a great language.

But you seem to be casually ignoring the enthusiasm on the Scala side. Brian Goetz says that 100 of the 1300 talks submitted to JavaOne were on Scala. So that's at least 100 people passionate enough about Scala to stand up in front of strangers and talk about it. http://blogs.sun.com/briangoetz/entry/how_to_get_your_javaone

Answer 5

I think the questioner is making a somewhat unjustified assumption. Programming Language Popularity seems to indicate that neither of these languages--Clojure or Scala has much in the way of support other than two rather ardent communities of early adopters. If one set or the other of the early adopters is more willing to evangelize their new language they're both pretty small communities regardless.

Answer 6

Interesting. Personally, I think Scala is an awesome language (and its strength will show in bigger projects), but you're somehow right in the sense of I don't see comments like "Scala rocks and your language is the suxx0r!!" that seems to be pretty common in other communities.

Maybe

• ... the members of the Scala community are more mature? (er... older?)
• ... they're too busy writing stuff in Scala and they don't have time for advocacy?
• ... they already know more than one language and know that there's no one and only one language to rule them all?

(humor implied, no need to start a flamewar)

Answer 7

its like being atheist. you just know. others may follow, but you do not need to push them. maybe they will discover the thruth by themselves.

do you know any fanatic atheist?

Answer 8

Scala is not a beginner's language. It's complicated, subtle and requires a significant investment of learning. It's awesome, but it's not easy.

Other answers have made this sound negative:

mipadi: a lot of Scala programmers (not all, but a lot) use Scala not because they love object-oriented functional languages, but because they don't want to use Java

I prefer to see this in a positive light. Scala is a language that has learned from the mistakes of history and strives not to repeat them. It attracts the sort of developers who have enough experience, in Java and other traditional languages, to appreciate this.

A sign of immaturity is the belief that one methodology rules over all others. I know I was guilty, a decade ago, of believing that object orientation was the one true way. Now we have those who claim that functional programming and nothing else is the right way. Scala is more mature than that: it understands that one size doesn't fit all.

Scala is still fairly new (in the scale of these things), and parts of it are settling down as I type this, but it's only a matter of time before somebody uses it to create a killer app, something millions come to rely on. I of course hope that'll be me :)