Machine Learning Systems:Understanding of Scale

[John Joe]

Hi Jeff Smith,
I study computer science with major Artificial Intelligince. Tools we used to analysis big data is WEKA.
I read the introduction from Machine Learning Systems:Designs that scale :-

About the Reader
Readers need intermediate skills in Java or Scala. No prior machine learning experience is assumed.

I think this book is very interesting for someone like me , but I have zero knowledge on Scala, would it be a problem for me to understand ?

Thanks.

[Jeff Smith]

Your question is somewhat addressed by this other thread, but let me answer in a bit more detail for your specifics.

I'm familiar with Weka. I've used it with folks who I'm trying to teach aspects of machine learning before. It and the accompanying textbook are great. You've definitely got a head start on some of the core concepts.

As for Scala, it's just another tool. I presume that the reader has a level of proficiency in some programming language. Experience in Java, Python, JavaScript, Ruby, etc. are all useful. But as long as you're a proficient software developer, then all of the Scala specifics will be introduced in the text as they're used. I presume that a substantial fraction of the readers will not have deep experience in functional programming languages (Erlang, Haskell, LISPs like Clojure, etc.), so I spend a lot of time on those concepts. Additionally, if you've not worked with a static type system before, like Java, C++, and Ocaml have, then a lot of that material will be new, but I explain it as it's introduced. At the level we work at in this book, the static type material boils down to describing the shape of our data and encoding that in our program.

[John Joe]

tq!