Scala Features

Scala, short for Scalable Language, is a hybrid functional programming language. It was created by Martin Odersky and was first released in 2003 (for more information, see “A Brief History of Scala” in Appendix 2, ​Web Resources​). Here are some of the key features of Scala:

• It supports both an imperative style and a functional style.

• It is purely object-oriented.

• It enforces sensible static typing and type inference.

• It is concise and expressive.

• It intermixes well with Java.

• It is built on a small kernel.

• It is highly scalable, and it takes less code to create high-performing applications.

• It has a powerful, easy-to-use concurrency model.

You’ll learn more about each of these features throughout this book.