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Scala is a ghetto?

Tim Dysinger wrote some time ago about his unpleasant experiences in a Scala chat channel. My experiences with the Scala community has been nicer. There sometimes is a little bit of FP zealotry but mostly people are willing to help. Perhaps it was his attitude towards the language with “the syntax is verbose, ugly and robotic.” when entering the chat which lead to his unpleasant welcome. Perhaps it was something else. The comments are closed on his post, so people couldn’t reply and the context is lost. I often write provoking things, at least I keep the comments open and get my share of ugly replies.

Being arrogant and insulting: “Notice that comments aren’t enabled, Scala nerds. Go comment somewhere else.”

I’m so very happy to not be part of the Ruby community. It was nice in 1998 and went downhill from there.

Update: Thanks to the comment, you do not need to google: Academics and Ergomaniacs

Update 2: No need to read the IRC log

(10:09:30 AM) DRMacIver: So, just for the record, I looked up the source code for Object.equals
(10:09:49 AM) DRMacIver: public boolean equals(Object obj) {
(10:09:49 AM) DRMacIver: return (this == obj);
[...]
(10:11:54 AM) dysinger: fuck you guys
[...]
(10:13:11 AM) dysinger: fuck you drmaciver - you and I have debated endlessly on other topics.
[...]
(10:14:37 AM) dysinger: eat a dick egomanics
[...]
(10:14:58 AM) dysinger left the room (Kicked by DRMacIver (I've already told you you're not my type.)).

To be honest I would have kicked him out after the first “fuck”.

And from the comments “dysinger said… So in the end it’s not about the code. We are all smart people [...]“.

Sorry. Nope.

“I shouldn’t have swore. That was bad on my part. [...] David MacIver can still bite my ass. [...] WTF?!”

Talk about idiocy.

After reading the IRC log: I’m so so very happy to not be part of the Ruby community.

PS: I’m sorry to use the word ghetto.

About the author

stephan Stephan Schmidt has been working with internet technologies for the last 20 years. He was head of development, consultant and CTO and is a speaker, author and blog writer. He specializes in organizing and optimizing software development helping companies by increasing productivity with lean software development and agile methodologies. Want to know more? All views are only his own. You can find him on Google +

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Comments

lumpynose

I wonder if it’s because people in a niche group feel marginalized and thus defensive when anyone criticizes their favorite thing? See, for example, Mac users.

stephan

I’m not defensive as a Mac user :-)

Joke aside you might be right.

If you want to know the context, search for “academics egomaniacs” (without the quotes). The full log of the conversation was posted, but if I were you I would not spend the time since it’s not that interesting. ;) The crux of the argument wasn’t even about Scala.

From my experience, the #scala channel is quite devoid of Scala fanboys. Some of the most active members often complain loudly about issues that Scala has (yes, Scala is far from perfect). The community attracts a range of people and certainly that includes _some_ that strongly favour FP.

And I am happy not to be a part of the Scala “community”. :)

BTW your comments are not open. They are moderated… and thanks for saying I am not smart. …Cheers…

stephan

How are they not open? Closed means you can’t comment. Open means you can comment. Moderated means you can comment but I check first. There seems to me some faulty logic on your part.

( Akismet has protected your site from 209,935 spam comments. )

stephan

And it should be obvious why I need to check comments with “fuck you guys”-people like you around in the blogosphere.

What is the point of this article anyway? Obviously you are a scala fanboy looking around at your blog.

So I had a bad day. Big deal. So there was a misunderstanding on IRC that got out of hand. Big $@#ing deal. I am not even a scala programming but yet I had actual Scala code on my blog article backing myself, something that is missing from yours.

_what_ _is_ _your_ _point_ ?

Sorry meant to say “I am not a scala programmer” -no edits allowed- I was jazzed up again by this article. I wish it would go away.

Obviously If I presented, at a conference in Berlin (I live in Hawaii), the same REST Xml/Json HTML-late-binding talk a year before you, then I am not “not smart” as you stated above. People can have bad days. And people can also have differing opinions. Scala and Ruby are probably as far apart as is from -. Let’s just leave it at that.

PS – thanks for calling me an idiot too. I won’t stoop to the same levels even though you are 3 months late to this particular argument and a year late to the REST/XML|JSON/HTML party.

stephan

“[...] scala fanboy [...]”

“So I had a bad day. [...] Big $@#ing deal.”

Seems more to me that you have a continuous supply of bad days.

Compare

“[...] I won’t stoop to the same levels [...]”

with

“[...] fuck you [...] fuck you [...] eat a dick”.

“[...] year late to the REST/XML|JSON/HTML party.”

Am I?

Sorry to tell you, but for me it looks like you are 10 years late to the Ruby party. And you do Ruby a great disservice with your attitude.

Beside that I’m not sure what any of your comments is about – except swearing and insults.

Yes, as a matter of fact, you _were_ a _full_ _year_ late to present with your buddies on the REST/HTML presetation. I beat you to it in your own town and I traveled half way around the world to give the presentation. For all I know you were in the audience.

You logic is also faulty that I am late 10 years to the Ruby party. You don’t know me or my experience. Ruby is only one of many languages I use.

I am also not sure what any of your responses are all about either. Seems like you just want to be angry with me, Stephan. I did not swear at you.

You however did say I was not smart and and idiot.

stephan

“I beat you to it in your own town and I traveled half way around the world to give the presentation.”

You’re obviously the king. Wasn’t Roys dissertation from 2000? What took you so long?

“For all I know you were in the audience. [...] You don’t know me or my experience.”

Your logic is faulty again.

“Big $@#ing deal. [...] I did not swear at you. ”

Sorry, my brain hurts trying to follow your logic.

Oct 14th, 2008 at 8:47 am: “Let’s just leave it at that.”

Oct 14th, 2008 at 9:04 am: “PS [...]”

My brain really hurts now. To me this does not seem to follow Aristotelian logic and I’m not very good at other forms of nonlinear(?) or Heisenberg (?) logic. Please stop.

Roys paper was on HTTP REST in general. My presentation on JQuery/HTML/REST was in 2007 and your presentation on the same topic in the same town was in 2008 – a year after mine. For all I know you _were_ in the audience and decided it would be brilliant to present the same topic in “Java”. Seems like pretty sound logic to me that I beat you by a year. What took you so long?

Seems like all you can studder is “Your logic is faulty.” Like I am supposed to just fall over and yield to your post.

My brain hurts too at this pissing match. This whole thing started with DrMaciver telling me the Ruby sucks on #scala. Negativity sure does resonate.

stephan

Dear Readers,

I’m sorry to close the comments. I like open discussions and the flow of ideas.

But this is going too far. Tims implicit accusations of plagiariasm and me sitting in the audience and copying his slides might be legally relevant.

“For all I know you _were_ in the audience and decided it would be brilliant to present the same topic in “Java””

For the record: The sources of my slides have been given in the presentations, two papers on SOFEA and SOUI.

So I’m closing the comments now. Sorry.

PS: Obviously I haven’t been there.

What people wrote somewhere else:

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