Comment by sraquo | Hacker News Reader

Comment by sraquo | Hacker News Reader

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Scala.js has been an amazing tool for my personal projects. I literally hit euphoria sometimes writing stuff in it. I am yet to truly grasp the benefits of full stack Scala (shared models, Autowire, etc.) but even for purely front-end development it's great, it beats Typescript and Flow out of the water in features, soundness and stability.

I wish I could use it at work since we (Hootsuite) already use Scala heavily on the backend, but I am reluctant in part because Scala.js does not quite have financial support of Lightbend. Or so it seems, it's a bit hard to tell where Lightbend ends and the non-profit Scala Center begins. The latter did pay to get some features implemented but reading their advisory board minutes, I'm not sure if they would have enough funding to pay for the majority of Scala.js development, which if I understand correctly happens for free as part of a PhD right now (note: my information might be wrong/outdated!)

So, if anyone involved with Scala.js is reading this and has better insights on the situation, it would be nice to know.

But I will keep using it regardless. It's marvellous.

You are mostly accurate wrt. the "financial" situation of Scala.js. Except that the Scala Center has an explicit Recommendation to "ensure the continuity of Scala.js" [1]. At least that means that, should I (the Ph.D. student doing Scala.js right now) stop working on it, the Scala Center has a mission to ensure someone keeps working on it. As with all Scala Center Recommendations, this is not a guarantee. But given the popularity of Scala.js within the Scala eco-system, I am confident that solutions will be found! Read more about the Scala Center and how it works at [2]

[1] https://github.com/scalacenter/advisoryboard/blob/master/min... [2] https://scala.epfl.ch/

> the Scala Center has a mission to ensure someone keeps working on it.

Heh, I hope it's you! :)

Seriously, scala.js has been amazing for us! Thank you for all that hard work!

EDIT: Of course you might still be beaten out by scala.native -> WebAssembly -> Browser... nah, not really. :)

(Too late to edit my comment.)

Were you at ScalaDays 2017 CPH? I don't think I saw you there, but you deserve a round of applause, you Magnificent Bastard, you!

Thank you. No I wasn't there this year. I was furiously preparing this release :-p

See you probably in London for Scala eXchange ;)

Thanks! You know, if it comes to that, Scala.js community is a passionate bunch, we could probably crowdfund it :)

It would be shocking if they hired anyone but the creator of Scala.js -- hopefully after you finish your doctorate this winter Lightbend and/or Scala Center will step up and make it happen.

What if he wants to quit scala.js and go code trading bots to get filthy rich :)

Unlikely. I love compilers too much.

I work in a trading shop (not filthy rich yet, though). Do you know that Scala to FPGA compilers based on Chisel are all in vogue these days? ;)

Ah ah!

Are there any public Scala to FPGA compilers?

WIP: https://github.com/stanford-ppl/spatial-lang

> I am reluctant in part because Scala.js does not quite have financial support of Lightbend. Or so it seems, it's a bit hard to tell where Lightbend ends and the non-profit Scala Center begins.

As the Scala team lead at Lightbend, I'd love to have a few members of my team focus on scala.js and scala-native. We do financially support their development (most recently, as part of our funding of the Scala Center).

As a business, it's a bit of a chicken-and-egg problem: our customers usually indicate they are hesitant to switch from JS for their frontend work. It would be great to have more customers provide feedback like yours (via our customer surveys)!

If I was Lightbend (whose work I use/enjoy/thank for) I think I would put Scala.js inside the Play Framework (as opposed to say Coffeescript)

https://github.com/vmunier/play-with-scalajs-example

I am exactly in same situation and experiences with Scala.JS as you... my #1 choice atm.

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