Scala for the Rest of Us

Scala can be a difficult language to get into, especially for people coming from a OO Java background. Thinking functionally doesn't come naturally to people who haven't worked in it, and a lot of the concepts and patterns are foreign and often heavily abstract. Just getting started can seem like an overwhelming effort. This talk discusses the barrier to entry in moving from OO Java to Scala and what we can do to lower that barrier. I will review the Scala Pet Store and its motivation as a means to help those new to Scala understand what a complete application looks like.