Hipsters Inc

Now, I'm not claiming to be a Scala master, but hey. If I can half-heartedly try to tech people to code using Processing, maybe I can eat my own dog food. Scala, by the way, runs in the Java VM, and seems to integrate with Java mighty well. If functional languages make no sense to you, Scala is a nice stepping stone.

Aaaanyway...If you'd like to hop aboard my train of Scala education, here's how I'll be paying my way.

Path to Awesome

• Snag Processing. Snag Scala.
• Make a new directory. Copy core.jar from Processings's lib folder.
• On a Unix-y system, run something like: export CLASSPATH=.:core.jar
• If you're Windows, I think it goes: set CLASSPATH=.;core.jar -- but I could be wrong
• Crack open a new file. Let's call it processingtest.scala. Punch in the following:

object ProcessingTest extends processing.core.PApplet {
  import processing.core._;

  override def setup(): unit = {
    size(400, 300, PConstants.P3D)
    noLoop
  }

  override def draw(): unit = {
    background(51)

    var i=0
    while(i < 100) {
      pushMatrix
      fill(random(255))
      translate(random(width), random(height), random(-30, 30))
      box(random(10, 70));
      popMatrix
      i += 1
    }
  }

  def main(args: Array[String]): unit = {
    var frame = new javax.swing.JFrame("Test")
    var applet = ProcessingTest
    frame.getContentPane().add(applet)
    applet.init
    frame.pack
    frame.setVisible(true)
  }
}

• Run something along the lines of: scalac processingtest.scala && scala ProcessingTest

Lovely. If you take out that noLoop statement, you'll see that the ol' girl is actually pretty quick. As for me, the big thing I'm getting out of this: Mixins. Holy crap. That's going to be awesome. And the ability to move back and forth...man.

If/When this Scala Eclipse plugin gets semi-decent auto-completion, I'll probably just start screaming. Probably pretty loud. Auto-completion in my IDE is about the only reason I'll still defend Java.

Oh, and sorry if I owe you an email. I've been all over the place. She's-a-comin'