Using static languages for automation, a Scala case study

Abstract:

Scripting languages are commonly used to write automation code. Python and Ruby seem to be the default choices for the task. They are flexible and easy to work with. But often a problem arises as the code base grows: refactoring becomes harder and harder without the compiler support. As a consequence it becomes almost impossible to keeping the code clean and readable. Change the people working on the project and you easily end up in ... well ... hell.

Is there another way? Can you gain the benefits of statically-typed languages without losing the development speed?

To answer this question I'll present our journey of rewriting existing Ruby deployment tooling from scratch in Scala. This will include: * what were the problems with existing tooling * why did we decide to have a full rewrite * all the design-decisions we made and why * what were the problems and what we learned along the way

The goal of the presentation is not to convince you to rewrite everything in Scala, nor to preach the benefits of static languages. It is simply to give you another perspective on the topic of tooling. Who knows, maybe you'll find some parts worth adopting to your situation.

Speaker: Ivan Kusalic