Scala Interpreter

Dave Ray wrote:
> Hiya. How stable should I assume the interfaces in scala.tools.nsc
> are, in particular Interpreter? Also, are there any definite plans for
> JSR-223 compliance as mentioned in this ticket:
> http://lampsvn.epfl.ch/trac/scala/ticket/874
>
> Thanks!
>
> Dave
>

Hello Dave,

One of the goals of Scala is maintaining as much as possible stability for
the language and libraries. That said, the interfaces in scala.tools.nsc
belong to the current compiler implementation and not to the standard
libraries. The compiler internals, of course, are subject to change.

You can reasonably expect that the current compiler will retain more or
less its current structure for a while, but it should be stressed that you
will rely on the stability of a specific piece of software (the current
compiler), rather than on a standardized Scala feature, library, or part of
the language.

In this sense, supporting JSR-223 would have the considerable advantage of
standardizing the use of Scala as a scripting engine without exposing the
compiler internals. It is definitely on our to-do list, but we don't have a
set timetable yet for working on this feature. Hopefully we'll manage to
tackle it at some point, among all the other work :)

Toni

Dave Ray wrote:

Hiya. How stable should I assume the interfaces in scala.tools.nsc
are, in particular Interpreter? Also, are there any definite plans for
JSR-223 compliance as mentioned in this ticket:
http://lampsvn.epfl.ch/trac/scala/ticket/874

Thanks!

Dave

Hello Dave,

One of the goals of Scala is maintaining as much as possible stability for the language and libraries. That said, the interfaces in scala.tools.nsc belong to the current compiler implementation and not to the standard libraries. The compiler internals, of course, are subject to change.

You can reasonably expect that the current compiler will retain more or less its current structure for a while, but it should be stressed that you will rely on the stability of a specific piece of software (the current compiler), rather than on a standardized Scala feature, library, or part of the language.

In this sense, supporting JSR-223 would have the considerable advantage of standardizing the use of Scala as a scripting engine without exposing the compiler internals. It is definitely on our to-do list, but we don't have a set timetable yet for working on this feature. Hopefully we'll manage to tackle it at some point, among all the other work :)

Toni