

Language War - Scala versus Python (Part 2) - zubinmehta
http://blog.zlemma.com/2013/02/21/language-war-scala-vs-python-part-2/

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jaxytee
"Yes, Scala has Lift but it can’t match the maturity of Django. This overrode
the benefits of some of the other libraries/tools that Scala/Java have on
offer. Python gets ahead again: 2-1."

How does one come to the conclusion that the maturity of an 8 year old web
framework, beats out the benefits of the almost 20 year old battle tested Java
ecosystem. Not to mention the Scala Ecosystem is included as Icing on the JVM
cake. OP also compared Lift to Django. How does OP not mention Play? Although
an argument about the better of the two would be based strictly on opinion,
from my view Play has more momentum in the race for the premier Scala Web
Framework.

~~~
zubinmehta
We were merely in search of a good web framework. Java has battletested
libraries but so does python and a lot of other general programming languages.
It still isn't answering our core question. A decision on what web framework
to use has much more to do with the framework itself(its philosophy and
community) than with the language it is built in.

Coming to django, I would argue that it is the best documented project on this
planet! Django has a huge number of plugins, quickens the process, and is
based on some amazing philosophies(DRY) and you happen to admire what a big
deal it is when you go deep into design of your web app.

Also, I can even argue that I can get a programmer who doesn't know python to
start on Django in 4 hours. Now, I wouldn't bank on this point as it is a
language ecosystem point, but it is a true fact, happened to me some years
ago.

Lift, is cherry picking features from django/rails, which is actually a good
thing, but I see it being a lot less progressive as compared to Django even at
the scale at which Django is right now.

Play, I haven't used, so cannot argue much on that. I think Play2 is less than
a year old? Surely, I cannot let my startup developers write more bytes than
necessary. Why code something which is already done and that is precisely what
happened with us when we started working with Django. Well tested libraries
can be pip installed.

~~~
mjt0229
Er. If your startup developers can't write more bytes than necessary, why are
you publicly doing a shoot-out? You clearly can't afford to explore all
reasonable options. You're wasting everyone's time if by cherry picking
outdated Scala frameworks to compare to the state-of-the-art Python
frameworks.

~~~
zubinmehta
Firstly, this isn't a shoot-out. I apologize if the title feels that way. It's
our account on why we chose one(language) over the other looking into various
real-life variables, not just web frameworks.

>> You clearly can't afford to explore all reasonable options. How else would
we know which one to go with and save extra bytes?

Lift/Play are surely not outdated. I am just stating objective facts that led
us to one over the other.

Read both the articles we have posted to get a flavour :)

~~~
mjt0229
I was responding to your comment that you had not looked at Play 2.0. I would
not argue that it's outdated, I am arguing that if you excluded it from
consideration, you missed something.

~~~
zubinmehta
I agree. We skimmed through and figured it's very new, so didn't explore more.

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cover_drive
Regarding the last point, what's the latest & greatest in vim support for
Scala?

~~~
zubinmehta
Anything vim, I follow derekwyatt - <https://github.com/derekwyatt/vim-scala>

------
rjp
Have you looked at Clojure?

