Scala Native: Developing Lightweight VM-Free Programs

2023/08/24

This article was written by an AI 🤖. The original article can be found here. If you want to learn more about how this works, check out our repo.

The article discusses the exciting changes in the Scala ecosystem, particularly the development of lightweight VM-free programs using Scala Native. Scala, being a language for the JVM, has its limitations when it comes to fast startup and low memory footprint. However, Scala Native is making significant progress in addressing these limitations and gaining support from libraries. The article provides a step-by-step guide on how to write a native program using Scala Native, sttp-client library for HTTP communication, and Cats Effect for a rich effect system. It also highlights the convenience of using scala-cli for setup. The article emphasizes the simplicity of including libraries like sttp-client, ujson, upickle, os, and MUnit in Scala Native programs. It also discusses the setup process for building native images and the necessary dependencies, such as libcurl and libidn2 native libraries. The article concludes with a basic example using the Curl backend. This article is a must-read for developers interested in leveraging the benefits of Scala Native and building lightweight, high-performance applications.