Month: May 2017

In some ways, Scala is the functional improvement over Java that Swift is to Objective-C.

• Based on functional concepts, when the previous language was primarily OO.
• Updated, modern, compact syntax.
• Strongly typed, but with type inference, so complex type declarations can be omitted.
• Compiler much slower, since it is doing more.
• Strong interop with legacy code.

In other ways, though, Java to Scala is more like the transition from C to Objective-C:

• Standard types taken from previous language.
• Runtime taken from previous language.
• Compromises made in language design to accommodate previous language’s content.

Both Objective-C and Scala were languages invented outside the nurturing environment of a flagship corporation. They couldn’t reinvent the wheel. They didn’t have the resources. (Same could be said for C++.) So they had to find a “host”.

Java and Swift, on the other hand, had serious money behind them, and could do everything from scratch if they wanted. They could think big.

I believe you need both to make progress.

Apple is taking dramatic steps now. But they will eventually finish all the large-scale, cutting-edge elements they’re willing to sponsor for their business, and the pace of change will slow.

And then, once again, we’ll have to look outside of Apple for language innovation.

I’ve found that just reading through a new codebase isn’t enough to get me comfortable with it.

I’ve even found that having it explained by the previous developers doesn’t do the trick.

What does “comfortable” mean? It means that I have an accurate mental model of it. I’ve internalized it. I don’t have to check the code or the documentation to know the following:

• what the big features are
• what it does well
• what needs to be fixed about it
• what looks bad but doesn’t need to be fixed right away
• what the low-hanging fruits for code cleanup are
• what OS features it doesn’t support, but should
• what OS features it doesn’t support, and never will
• what its predominate style is (or if it has one)
• where the best place to put a helper method is

That list is just off the top of my head. I’m sure there’s more.

So, if just reading the code doesn’t work for me, what does?

Actually working on it.

Fixing bugs. Adding new features to existing code. Going through one full major release cycle, if possible.

Then I can start thinking concretely about making major improvements to it.