So we didn't have quite the shining skies we wanted all evening but a little rain and cloud were not going to dampen our Scala in the City spirits!
Thanks again to everyone who came along to the meet-up last night, we are so pleased to have been able to introduce you all to Simply Business and how interesting their use of data is. Not only did we get the opportunity to hear from Director of Data, Dani Sola about exactly how Simply Business engages with their audience using this data but also Senior Software Developer, Michal Wrobel gave us the low-down on how they have been using scala and Kafka streams to build event-driven applications in their data team.
Following on from that was our loyal Scala in the City attendee Monty West giving his first-ever presentation and we have to say, it was great - Well done Monty! We all know how to write like Cats and the benefits of using this Typelevel library.
Finally, for the last-minute addition to our line-up was Independent Software Developer, Marco Borst who flew all the way from Amsterdam to take to the Scala in the City stage and we're glad he did as it was a fascinating talk on the Syntax and Semantics of Symbols.
So, before we have the videos ready for you, as usual you can check out the presentations from our speakers - here you go!
Marco Borst
On the Syntax and Semantics of Symbols
Scala code contains a lot of symbols, there is a lot of syntax going on under the hood of the Scala compiler, responsible to interpret the semantical meaning of the code, force-fed by the hundreds of thousands of programmers that use this remarkable tool to validate their persistent thoughts. Lots of symbolism going on there, in that previous sentence itself already. In this talk we'll explore the syntax and semantics of mathematical and Scala symbols.
Monty West
How to write like Cats
For many Scala programmers the Typelevel Cats library is essential. It is an extensive grab-bag of useful functionality. However, several Scala developers tell me they don't use it because it's unnecessary and overly complicated. I hope to dispel this by introducing the benefits of a core pattern Cats employs, the type class. We'll live-code our way from classic subtype polymorphism to ad-hoc polymorphism Scala style. Then we'll get rid of all that code and replace it with a few lines of Cats to show how easy and useful it can be.