Starting a Scala one

scala.html.markdown

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+/*
+  Set yourself up:
+
+  1) Download Scala - http://www.scala-lang.org/downloads
+  2) unzip/untar in your favourite location and put the bin subdir on the path
+  3) Start a scala REPL by typing scala. You should see the prompt:
+
+  scala>
+
+  This is the so called REPL. You can run commands in the REPL. Let do just that:
+*/
+
+println(10) // prints the integer 10
+
+println("Boo!") // printlns the string Boo!
+
+
+// Evaluating a command gives you the type and value of the result
+
+1 + 7
+
+/* The above line results in:
+
+  scala> 1 + 7
+  res29: Int = 8
+
+  This means the result of evaluating 1 + 7 is an object of type Int with a value of 8
+
+  1+7 will give you the same result
+*/
+
+
+// Everything is an object, including a function type these in the repl:
+
+7 // results in res30: Int = 7 (res30 is just a generated var name for the result)
+
+// The next line gives you a function that takes an Int and returns it squared
+(x:Int) => x * x    
+
+// You can assign this function to an identifier, like this:
+val sq = (x:Int) => x * x
+
+/* The above says this
+   
+   sq: Int => Int = <function1>	
+
+   Which means that this time we gave an explicit name to the value - sq is a function that take an Int and returns Int.
+
+   sq can be executed as follows:
+*/
+
+sq(10)   // Gives you this: res33: Int = 100. The result is the Int with a value 100
+