Scala for Java Developers: A Practical Primer Question

[Thomas Zink]

There are so many languages already to keep up with, why another one? Java has so many features and has some reduced boilerplate options. Thanks!

[Campbell Ritchie]

Remember that Scala was introduced before Java® had the reduced boilerplate in version 8.

[T Weston]

Scala offers some more advanced language features than Java and offers better support for functional programming, so "why another one?" is, I imagine because Odersky and others felt they could improve on the current language landscape. It's another question if the developer community agree but it's evident that Java (and the software development industry as a whole) has been heavily influenced by Scala (the latest example being the introduction of val/vars in Java and the trending appetite for FP).

A fair few of the Scala founders worked on Java back in the day, so it's not a far stretch to imagine they learned a lot from the process and wanted to have another go with fewer constraints... see what Odersky has to say on the topic: https://www.artima.com/scalazine/articles/origins_of_scala.html