{"id":74,"date":"2011-07-26T15:59:55","date_gmt":"2011-07-26T15:59:55","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.benbarefield.com\/blog\/?p=74"},"modified":"2011-07-26T16:01:50","modified_gmt":"2011-07-26T16:01:50","slug":"getting-started-with-scala-net","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.benbarefield.com\/blog\/2011\/07\/26\/getting-started-with-scala-net\/","title":{"rendered":"Getting Started with Scala.Net"},"content":{"rendered":"

Reporting from the Programming Summer Camp<\/a> in Crested Butte, Colorado. This has got to be one of the better places in the world to code. We had a great warm up bike ride this morning, then settled in for an afternoon of coding. I spent my time figuring out Scala.Net<\/a> with the goal of calling some C# code from Scala.<\/p>\n

The Scala.net compiler is in an SVN repository located at: http:\/\/lampsvn.epfl.ch\/svn-repos\/scala\/scala-experimental\/trunk\/bootstrap<\/a><\/p>\n

I started by writing a small C# class library. I created one class with a couple of methods. This is pretty standard \u201cgetting up to speed\u201d stuff:<\/p>\n

\n
\n
using<\/span> System;<\/pre>\n
 <\/p>\n
namespace<\/span> Echidna<\/pre>\n
 <\/p>\n
{<\/pre>\n
 <\/p>\n
    public<\/span> class<\/span> Speaker<\/pre>\n
 <\/p>\n
    {<\/pre>\n
 <\/p>\n
        public<\/span> void<\/span> Speak()<\/pre>\n
 <\/p>\n
        {<\/pre>\n
 <\/p>\n
            Console.WriteLine(\"Hi there.\"<\/span>);<\/pre>\n
 <\/p>\n
        }<\/pre>\n
 <\/p>\n
<\/pre>\n
 <\/p>\n
        public<\/span> void<\/span> Speak(string<\/span> name)<\/pre>\n
 <\/p>\n
        {<\/pre>\n
 <\/p>\n
            Console.WriteLine(string<\/span>.Format(\"Hi, {0}, glad you could join us.\"<\/span>, name));<\/pre>\n
 <\/p>\n
        }<\/pre>\n
 <\/p>\n
    }<\/pre>\n
 <\/p>\n
}<\/pre>\n
 <\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n
Next, I dove into the Scala. For this experiment all I needed was an object whose Main created an instances of my C# class and called its methods:<\/p>\n
\n
\n
import<\/span> Echidna.Speaker<\/pre>\n
 <\/p>\n
<\/pre>\n
 <\/p>\n
object Test {<\/pre>\n
 <\/p>\n
    def main(args: Array[String]) {<\/pre>\n
 <\/p>\n
        val speaker = new<\/span> Speaker()<\/pre>\n
 <\/p>\n
<\/pre>\n
 <\/p>\n
        speaker.Speak<\/pre>\n
 <\/p>\n
        speaker.Speak(\"Joe\"<\/span>)<\/pre>\n
 <\/p>\n
    }<\/pre>\n
 <\/p>\n
}<\/pre>\n
 <\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n
I\u2019d like to note here that the import is a Scala import statement (not a C# include), so the class name needs to be included. I could also have written \u201cimport Echidna._\u201d to get everything from the Echidna namespace. The compiler error did not make it especially obvious that I had messed this up.<\/p>\n
With all my code built I could start compiling. Currently, there are two steps to create an executable, but there are plans to get rid of the second step. First, MSIL is created using the Scala.Net compiler:<\/p>\n
<Scala.Net directory>\\bin\\scalacompiler.exe<\/p>\n
-target:msil<\/p>\n
-Xassem-extdirs <Scala.Net directory>\\bin<\/p>\n
-Xshow-class <Scala entry class><\/p>\n
-Xassem-path <Dependent Assemblies>
\n<Scala files><\/p>\n
This is the bare minimum required to compile the Scala into MSIL. I inserted the new lines for ease of reading and to make it more obvious what is going on. Notes:<\/p>\n