Scala vs Scala.js

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Scala

10.7K
7.7K
+ 1
1.5K
Scala.js

49
66
+ 1
0
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Scala vs Scala.js: What are the differences?

What is Scala? A pure-bred object-oriented language that runs on the JVM. Scala is an acronym for “Scalable Language”. This means that Scala grows with you. You can play with it by typing one-line expressions and observing the results. But you can also rely on it for large mission critical systems, as many companies, including Twitter, LinkedIn, or Intel do. To some, Scala feels like a scripting language. Its syntax is concise and low ceremony; its types get out of the way because the compiler can infer them.

What is Scala.js? *The Scala to JavaScript compiler *. It is a safer way to build robust front-end web applications. With it, typos and type-errors are immediately caught and shown to you in your editor, without even needing to compile your code. Refactor any field or method with ease, with the confidence that if you mess it up the editor will tell you immediately.

Scala and Scala.js are primarily classified as "Languages" and "JavaScript Compilers" tools respectively.

Scala and Scala.js are both open source tools. It seems that Scala with 11.9K GitHub stars and 2.76K forks on GitHub has more adoption than Scala.js with 3.71K GitHub stars and 325 GitHub forks.

According to the StackShare community, Scala has a broader approval, being mentioned in 557 company stacks & 1895 developers stacks; compared to Scala.js, which is listed in 6 company stacks and 4 developer stacks.

Advice on Scala and Scala.js
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GolangGolangNode.jsNode.js
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ScalaScala

Finding the best server-side tool for building a personal information organizer that focuses on performance, simplicity, and scalability.

performance and scalability get a prototype going fast by keeping codebase simple find hosting that is affordable and scales well (Java/Scala-based ones might not be affordable)

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David Annez
VP Product at loveholidays · | 5 upvotes · 294.4K views
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I've picked Node.js here but honestly it's a toss up between that and Go around this. It really depends on your background and skillset around "get something going fast" for one of these languages. Based on not knowing that I've suggested Node because it can be easier to prototype quickly and built right is performant enough. The scaffolding provided around Node.js services (Koa, Restify, NestJS) means you can get up and running pretty easily. It's important to note that the tooling surrounding this is good also, such as tracing, metrics et al (important when you're building production ready services).

You'll get more scalability and perf from go, but balancing them out I would say that you'll get pretty far with a well built Node.JS service (our entire site with over 1.5k requests/m scales easily and holds it's own with 4 pods in production.

Without knowing the scale you are building for and the systems you are using around it it's hard to say for certain this is the right route.

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Decisions about Scala and Scala.js

We needed to incorporate Big Data Framework for data stream analysis, specifically Apache Spark / Apache Storm. The three options of languages were most suitable for the job - Python, Java, Scala.

The winner was Python for the top of the class, high-performance data analysis libraries (NumPy, Pandas) written in C, quick learning curve, quick prototyping allowance, and a great connection with other future tools for machine learning as Tensorflow.

The whole code was shorter & more readable which made it easier to develop and maintain.

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Pros of Scala
Pros of Scala.js
  • 187
    Static typing
  • 178
    Pattern-matching
  • 177
    Jvm
  • 172
    Scala is fun
  • 138
    Types
  • 95
    Concurrency
  • 88
    Actor library
  • 86
    Solve functional problems
  • 81
    Open source
  • 80
    Solve concurrency in a safer way
  • 44
    Functional
  • 24
    Fast
  • 23
    Generics
  • 18
    It makes me a better engineer
  • 17
    Syntactic sugar
  • 13
    Scalable
  • 10
    First-class functions
  • 10
    Type safety
  • 9
    Interactive REPL
  • 8
    Expressive
  • 7
    SBT
  • 6
    Case classes
  • 6
    Implicit parameters
  • 4
    Rapid and Safe Development using Functional Programming
  • 4
    JVM, OOP and Functional programming, and static typing
  • 4
    Object-oriented
  • 4
    Used by Twitter
  • 3
    Functional Proframming
  • 2
    Spark
  • 2
    Beautiful Code
  • 2
    Safety
  • 2
    Growing Community
  • 1
    DSL
  • 1
    Rich Static Types System and great Concurrency support
  • 1
    Naturally enforce high code quality
  • 1
    Akka Streams
  • 1
    Akka
  • 1
    Reactive Streams
  • 1
    Easy embedded DSLs
  • 1
    Mill build tool
  • 0
    Freedom to choose the right tools for a job
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    Cons of Scala
    Cons of Scala.js
    • 11
      Slow compilation time
    • 7
      Multiple ropes and styles to hang your self
    • 6
      Too few developers available
    • 4
      Complicated subtyping
    • 2
      My coworkers using scala are racist against other stuff
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      What is Scala?

      Scala is an acronym for “Scalable Language”. This means that Scala grows with you. You can play with it by typing one-line expressions and observing the results. But you can also rely on it for large mission critical systems, as many companies, including Twitter, LinkedIn, or Intel do. To some, Scala feels like a scripting language. Its syntax is concise and low ceremony; its types get out of the way because the compiler can infer them.

      What is Scala.js?

      It is a safer way to build robust front-end web applications. With it, typos and type-errors are immediately caught and shown to you in your editor, without even needing to compile your code. Refactor any field or method with ease, with the confidence that if you mess it up the editor will tell you immediately

      Need advice about which tool to choose?Ask the StackShare community!

      Jobs that mention Scala and Scala.js as a desired skillset
      What companies use Scala?
      What companies use Scala.js?
      See which teams inside your own company are using Scala or Scala.js.
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      Sign up to get full access to all the companiesMake informed product decisions

      What tools integrate with Scala?
      What tools integrate with Scala.js?

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      Blog Posts

      Aug 28 2019 at 3:10AM

      Segment

      PythonJavaAmazon S3+16
      7
      2557
      DockerAmazon EC2Scala+8
      6
      2710
      What are some alternatives to Scala and Scala.js?
      Kotlin
      Kotlin is a statically typed programming language for the JVM, Android and the browser, 100% interoperable with Java
      Python
      Python is a general purpose programming language created by Guido Van Rossum. Python is most praised for its elegant syntax and readable code, if you are just beginning your programming career python suits you best.
      Clojure
      Clojure is designed to be a general-purpose language, combining the approachability and interactive development of a scripting language with an efficient and robust infrastructure for multithreaded programming. Clojure is a compiled language - it compiles directly to JVM bytecode, yet remains completely dynamic. Clojure is a dialect of Lisp, and shares with Lisp the code-as-data philosophy and a powerful macro system.
      Java
      Java is a programming language and computing platform first released by Sun Microsystems in 1995. There are lots of applications and websites that will not work unless you have Java installed, and more are created every day. Java is fast, secure, and reliable. From laptops to datacenters, game consoles to scientific supercomputers, cell phones to the Internet, Java is everywhere!
      Golang
      Go is expressive, concise, clean, and efficient. Its concurrency mechanisms make it easy to write programs that get the most out of multicore and networked machines, while its novel type system enables flexible and modular program construction. Go compiles quickly to machine code yet has the convenience of garbage collection and the power of run-time reflection. It's a fast, statically typed, compiled language that feels like a dynamically typed, interpreted language.
      See all alternatives