Java vs. Scala Ceremony

Originally published 17 Nov 2009

Man, every time I go to write some Java code these days, I just cringe at all the effort.

public class Person {
    private final String firstName;
    private final String lastName;
    private final int age;

    public Person(String firstName,
                  String lastName,
                  int age) {
        this.firstName = firstName;
        this.lastName = lastName;
        this.age = age;
    }
    
    public String getFirstName() {
        return firstName;
    }

    public String getLastName() {
        return lastName;
    }

    public int getAge() {
        return age;
    }
}

Sure, it didn't take me too long to write the Java code because of the handy dandy source code generation features in my IDE. But the real problem is the maintenance. I or someone on my team will have to read this cluttered code many more times than the one time I wrote it.

Take a look at the equivalent Scala code:

class Person(val firstName: String,
             val lastName: String,
             val age: Int)

Which version would you rather maintain?