How much Scala knowledge is needed to start coding a simple blog with Lift?

[ngocdaothanh]

Hi,

I have experience with Rails and Java. I'm new to Scala and Lift. I
want to ask how much Scala knowledge is needed to start coding a
simple blog with Lift?

Rails is easy to learn because it require little Ruby knowledge to get
started. Having read the Lift book, I feel one must have some advanced
Scala knowledge to get started. Could anyone provide some kind of
guideline or curriculum of Scala and Lift to get started with Lift?

I would like to write a simple blog to learn Lift. But don't know how
much Scala knowledge I should have to jump in Lift.

Thanks.

[Timothy Perrett]

Hi there,

Personally, when I came to Lift over 2 years ago I knew no scala what-
so-ever. Knowing scala is a real bonus, but everyone has to start
somewhere right? I would suggest just wading in, and see how you get
on - there will be a learning curve but this is a very friendly group
and has some rich archives full of information to help you on your way.

Good luck!

Cheers, Tim

[opyate]

Hello,

I bought the Scala book in PDF format (Odersky/Spoon/Venners) and
pretty much jumped around it (benefit of PDF is the hyperlinks) for
about a week. I am probably proficient with everything in chapters
1-18 which is still pretty much beginner/novice level, but I need the
web/book before I tackle most other concepts.

But I just wanted to get my hands dirty with a couple of apps and
dived straight in. You learn by doing. You learn by reading someone
else's code, which is what I've been doing a lot with the Lift sources
(I have a local Git clone, and set it up in Eclipse).

So, in a nutshell: learn the Scala basics, and get your hands dirty.
Open a console and faff about, then start writing apps! :-)

What I've done so far can be found here:
http://github.com/opyate/Ken
http://github.com/opyate/yauser

Happy coding!
Juan

[Viktor Klang]

I started Scala 2 years ago by reading the Lift code.
so DPPs basically responsible for my Scala code... ;)

--
Viktor Klang

Blog: klangism.blogspot.com
Twttr: viktorklang
Wave: viktor...@googlewave.com
Code: github.com/viktorklang

AKKA Committer - akkasource.org
Lift Committer - liftweb.com
Atmosphere Committer - atmosphere.dev.java.net
SoftPub founder: http://groups.google.com/group/softpub

[Timothy Perrett]

+1

Although i've also learnt a lot from n8han's dispatch library - that
thing is freaking immense.

Cheers, Tim

[David Pollak]

On Thu, Oct 15, 2009 at 4:18 AM, Viktor Klang <viktor...@gmail.com> wrote:

I started Scala 2 years ago by reading the Lift code.
so DPPs basically responsible for my Scala code... ;)

So what you're saying is that you're all my fault... gak. ;-)

--
Lift, the simply functional web framework http://liftweb.net
Beginning Scala http://www.apress.com/book/view/1430219890
Follow me: http://twitter.com/dpp
Surf the harmonics

[Peter Robinett]

David's Beginning Scala book is fantastic: it's perfectly paced, gets
straight to the point, and is written in a nice voice.

Peter Robinett

On Oct 15, 4:41 pm, David Pollak <feeder.of.the.be...@gmail.com>
wrote:

> > Wave: viktor.kl...@googlewave.com

> > Code: github.com/viktorklang
>
> > AKKA Committer - akkasource.org
> > Lift Committer - liftweb.com
> > Atmosphere Committer - atmosphere.dev.java.net
> > SoftPub founder:http://groups.google.com/group/softpub
>
> --
> Lift, the simply functional web frameworkhttp://liftweb.net

> Beginning Scalahttp://www.apress.com/book/view/1430219890

[David Pollak]

On Thu, Oct 15, 2009 at 12:02 PM, Peter Robinett <pe...@bubblefoundry.com> wrote:

David's Beginning Scala book is fantastic: it's perfectly paced, gets
straight to the point, and is written in a nice voice.

Guess I owe you a beer for that promo :-)

--

Lift, the simply functional web framework http://liftweb.net

Beginning Scala http://www.apress.com/book/view/1430219890

[Ross Mellgren]

David, do you secretly work for a brewery somewhere? It seems like you either grant or receive beers on a regular basis ;-)

-Ross

[ban...@gmail.com]

Beginning Scala - that is the reason I'm here.

--
John Zhang, Ph.D.

201-993-9089
Bancova
www.bancova.com
Power of E-Learning

[David Pollak]

On Thu, Oct 15, 2009 at 12:05 PM, Ross Mellgren <dri...@gmail.com> wrote:

David, do you secretly work for a brewery somewhere? It seems like you either grant or receive beers on a regular basis ;-)

Nah... but it's a great currency, and always very liquid. ;-)

[Naftoli Gugenheim]

Can you outline the feature set it should have? And what is your time frame?

-------------------------------------

[Wilson MacGyver]

Generally for people new to scala but with primary intention to
explore lift, I suggest
the following

Get David Pollak's "Beginning Scala" book, read ch 1-5. (I still think
it's a good idea to read ch 6 to know how actors work, but for using
lift, you can
put it in the back burner.)

Then start on lift tutorial. Since you already know java and rails. A bunch of
David's comparions to Ruby/Java will feel right at home for you.

Also with IntelliJ now have a opensource community edition with scala support.
I highly recommend that as a Scala IDE. But for the purpose of learning,
The Scala Repl will be enough for exploring.

Good luck and have fun.

--
Omnem crede diem tibi diluxisse supremum.

[ngocdaothanh]

> Can you outline the feature set it should have? And what is your time frame?

I study Lift in my free time, so basically there's no strict time
frame. For a start, I would like to just study enough Scala to be able
to use Lift, and just enough Lift to be able to create a simple blog
as an exercise. The blog only has 2 resources: user and article.

Because I have Java experience and I am working with Erlang full-time
now, I am familiar with most ideas of Scala. I just feel that its
syntax is too complicated, so for a start I only want to study enough
Scala to be able to use Lift. Lift is my final target, Scala is a by-
product :D.

Thank you all.

[Naftoli Gugenheim]

Ah, like some frameworks like CakePHP have as a basic tutorial?
Look on GitHub under examples/hellolift -- it seems to be a blog demo. (In case you're not familiar with the maven layout, the source folder is src/main/scala.)
It may be helpful to copy the code from there manually, and try to understand each line one at a time.
Although it's not the simplest possible blog; apparently it tries to show off a range of lift's features.

-------------------------------------

[Viktor Klang]

On Thu, Oct 15, 2009 at 4:41 PM, David Pollak <feeder.of...@gmail.com> wrote:

On Thu, Oct 15, 2009 at 4:18 AM, Viktor Klang <viktor...@gmail.com> wrote:

I started Scala 2 years ago by reading the Lift code.
so DPPs basically responsible for my Scala code... ;)

So what you're saying is that you're all my fault... gak. ;-)

 

Thanks for the warming words David ;)