Hacker Newsnew | past | comments | ask | show | jobs | submitlogin

C# seems to look more like Scala with every release (a good thing), with talk of primary constructors for C# and string interpolation etc.

EDIT: Interesting to see Neal Gafter is involved (See Roslyn mention here: http://www.gafter.com/~neal/), who is rather fond of Scala from what I've read: http://www.infoq.com/articles/neal-gafter-on-java




Except that C# is a first class citizen on the platform, not a wannabe replacement for the platform's main language.

This already makes a lot of difference in the tooling that one gets from the platform owner.

Another thing is from the point of view of customers.

With C# I can get all the goodies on customer projects.

With Scala, I can only play with it at home and try to be happy with Java 8 on customer projects.


> "With C# I can get all the goodies on customer projects. "

And F# can cover the rest if needed.


They really just need to let us use C# and F# in the same sln/projects. Then structure can be in C#, nitty gritty implementations in F# and everyone is happy!


Primary constructors have been dropped from C# 6 now (https://roslyn.codeplex.com/discussions/568820)


Yep, and I'm pretty sure it's related to a comment(s) that I have made:

http://www.reddit.com/r/csharp/comments/2dc6ge/easier_immuta...


>C# seems to look more like Scala with every release

It does, but then that begs the question of "why use c# at all?". C# is still missing (along with F#) scala's most powerful features, and I prefer the JVM and openness of the ecosystem to .NET

The contact I'm on, we're having a lot of success porting away a large C# application to Scala.


You also get a step-wise path to rewrite the applications. Going to Scala would probably be a complete re-write which is risky and time consuming. I don't think Scala usage will grow much more now that Java 8 is released. The benefits of rewriting a Java application to Scala is probably not that great in comparison to the cost. And the C# to Scala re-write is probably even worse from a cost/risk perspective.


>I don't think Scala usage will grow much more now that Java 8 is released

Do you think the main reason people use Scala is because of lambdas and type inference?


Well, obviously other people did the math and went ahead with it.

> I don't think Scala usage will grow much more now that Java 8 is released.

I don't get that reasoning. As the GP mentioned, even C# projects migrate, so why would Java's more concise anonymous inner classes be a show-stopper?


What about because many corporations are .NET shops and Scala dropped CLR support?


The reason they dropped CLR support was because there was virtually no interest in it.


No, I'm pretty sure the reason they dropped CLR support was that there was no good way to get a decent .NET interop story with a language with a substantially different type system than .NET assumes (particularly, with higher-kinded types) given .NETs reified generics.

This is one respect in which .NET's superiority over the JVM as a platform for its core languages (C#/VB.NET on .NET vs. Java on the JVM) made it worse for flexibility. Reified generics are great for implementing languages with a C#-like-type-system, but they limit the power of the type systems you can have.


No.


Your comment might be more useful if you gave a reason or an argument or some data or something...


When you are a .NET shop with C++, C# and F# at your disposal why invest into Scala?


F# is a remarkably less powerful language than scala. Along with the cost of Visual Studio + windows licenses, the Scala/open source ecosystem is just a better choice.


For corporations, the cost of Visual Studio and Windows licenses is a drop of water in their ocean budget.

There is enterprise software way more expensive than that.


Corporations for which VS/Win licenses don't matter are usually exactly those which don't let developers use F#. So what's your point?




Consider applying for YC's Fall 2025 batch! Applications are open till Aug 4

Guidelines | FAQ | Lists | API | Security | Legal | Apply to YC | Contact

Search: