Scala and .NET - runs well? some experiences? state of affairs

Question

There are a lot of threads about "Should we use scala + .net?" , "What are the benefits of using Scala in .Net?" and so on. But these questions are old (08,09,10).

I know scala is not a very old language and the .net support is new and not 100% supported. But where is scala today with .net? It is a good idea to make a windows .net application with scala? Where are the problems with scala and .net today? I mean a normal scala application runs on .net very well. But what about a big/complex project? Threading and so on... Is here somebody who worked a lot of with scala and .net and could give one's opinion?

Thank you

Answer 1

I don't have any experience with .NET & Scala but there is a ScalaDays 2011 video session about it. If you are interested check Scala.NET: What you can do with it today

Answer 2

Binaries and sources for the preview version of Scala.NET (library and compiler) can be obtained via SVN:

svn co http://lampsvn.epfl.ch/svn-repos/scala/scala-experimental/trunk/bootstrap

Bootstrapping has been an important step, and ongoing work will add support for missing features (CLR generics, etc). That's work in progress.

For now we're testing Scala.NET on Microsoft implementations only, but we would like our compiler to be useful for as many profiles and runtime implementations as possible.

A survivor's report on using Scala.NET on XNA at http://www.srtsolutions.com/tag/scala

Miguel Garcia http://lamp.epfl.ch/~magarcia/ScalaNET/

Answer 3

I suspect the problem with the .net version of Scala is that it's not what most people are using.

If you have a dependency on just a single .net component for your needs, then I'd personally recommend using JNA or another system to bridge across.

Alternatively if you require a .Net component and want to build it in Scala, potentially http://xmlvm.org/ would be better for your needs.