Creator of Scala: Comparing Languages And How AI Will Impact Them | Martin Odersky

<p>Martin Odersky is the creator of Scala and I interviewed him to compare different languages designs (Rust vs Zig vs Python vs Scala) and how AI will impact programming languages.</p><p><br></p><p>• My ergonomic keyboard project I mentioned, you can follow along here: https://read.compose.llc/</p><p>• The Kickstarter page for it: https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/ryanlpeterman/compose-simple-ergonomics-beautifully-done</p><p><br></p><p>Podcast links:</p><p><br></p><p>• YouTube: https://youtu.be/LdN4sPWM-WY</p><p>• Apple: https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/the-peterman-pod/id1777363835</p><p>• Transcript: https://www.developing.dev/p/creator-of-scala-comparing-languages?r=n49ky</p><p><br></p><p>Thank you to this episode&#39;s sponsors for supporting my work:</p><p><br></p><p>• WorkOS: makes your app Enterprise Ready with easy to use APIs to add SSO, SCIM, RBAC, and more in just a few lines of code, check them out at https://workos.com/</p><p>• Jira by Atlassian: Get more work done with your favorite agents and models all in one place, check them out at https://jira.dev/</p><p><br></p><p>Timestamps:</p><p><br></p><p>(00:00) Intro</p><p>(00:44) Why care about functional programming</p><p>(06:35) Why should people learn Scala</p><p>(09:26) Rust vs Scala</p><p>(12:42) Rust vs Zig</p><p>(15:45) Scala vs Python</p><p>(18:31) The programming languages that influenced him</p><p>(22:16) How running on the JVM works</p><p>(26:33) Why writing a compiler is hard</p><p>(29:19) Why Twitter adopted Scala early on</p><p>(31:00) How he believes AI will impact programming languages</p><p>(43:40) Will there be less engineers in ten years</p><p>(44:34) Top programming languages to learn to grow</p><p>(46:18) Top technical book recommendation</p><p>(46:51) Why he chose academia instead of industry</p><p>(48:28) Reflecting on Scala</p><p>(55:42) Advice for his younger self</p><p>(56:33) Outro</p><p><br></p><p>Where to find Martin:</p><p><br></p><p>• Wikipedia: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Martin_Odersky</p><p>• Website: https://people.epfl.ch/martin.odersky</p><p>• X/Twitter: https://x.com/odersky</p><p>• GitHub: https://github.com/odersky</p><p><br></p><p>Where to find Ryan:</p><p><br></p><p>• Newsletter: https://www.developing.dev/</p><p>• X/Twitter: https://x.com/ryanlpeterman</p><p>• LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/ryanlpeterman/</p><p>• Threads: https://www.threads.com/@ryanlpeterman</p><p>• Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/ryanlpeterman</p><p>• TikTok: https://www.tiktok.com/@ryanlpeterman</p><p><br></p><p>Referenced in this episode:</p><p><br></p><p>• Structure and Interpretation of Computer Programs: https://web.mit.edu/6.001/6.037/sicp.pdf</p><p>• A Brief, Incomplete, and Mostly Wrong History of Programming Languages (book): http://james-iry.blogspot.com/2009/05/brief-incomplete-and-mostly-wrong.html</p>