A blend of all the features you ever saw in different languages!
Scala is a "scalable" language. How does Scala scale? By keeping the core language small and letting features to be added as libraries. You can build your own library and scale the language. How does Scala do that? Scala tries to answer: “So, if we want to let programmers implement this feature as language library rather than language syntax, what features do we need to introduce in the language?”
Features and examples of this concept:
Actors Library
Operators as Functions
Flexible syntax (Prefix, Infix, Postfix mixing)
Uniformity of Objects, Functions and Operators.
Makes Scala DSL friendly ("almost" English) and "scalable" (You can build libraries for Scala that look like language syntax additions.)
Makes the core language small (rest of the features are implemented in the library). "Lisp Philosophy". But during the time Lisp was invented, it was early days in computer programming and few language constructs were known. Now that we have a lot of language constructs, Scala tries to define a language that lets programmers implement those features with a small core language.
Uniformity of Objects, Functions and Operators => Symbolic Programming. (<- A Function literal in Scala!)
What happens when you try to fuse OOP and Functional Programming on JVM?
You can apply battle-tested OO Design Patterns.
Functional Programming Patterns and Lisp Patterns are getting fashionable and of course useful (Multicores, Concurrency)! Scala lets you use those patterns in our code and design.
Well suited for data processing applications.
Functional Programming, Map, Reduce, Filter.
Static Typing.
Terse syntax.
Type inference
Semicolon inference
Control abstractions with Higher order functions
Improved syntax for Object Oriented Programming
Pattern Matching
Concurrent, Parallel and Distributed Programming.
Actors Model.
Akka Framework.
Scala creator Martin Odersky himself takes Parallel Programming Challenge seriously [1].
Pattern Matching.
Traits.
Components and Composition.
How do you fuse Object Oriented and Functional Programming to facilitate the elusive goal of Component oriented Software Development?
Wisdom "Know thyself." - Greek maxim "Intellectuals solve problems, geniuses prevent them." - Albert Einstein Open Independent Mind
“If your mind is empty, it is always ready for anything, it is open to everything. In the beginner's mind there are many possibilities, but in the expert's mind there are few. ” - Shunryu Suzuki [Open independent mind is a necessary prerequisite for creativity.] "Believe nothing. No matter where you read it, or who said it, even if I had said it, unless it agrees with your own reason and your common sense." - Buddha “I do not want my house to be walled in on all sides and my windows to be stuffed. I want the cultures of all lands to be blown about my houses as freely as possible. But I refuse to be blown off my feet by any.” – Mahatma Gandhi "Few are those who see with their own eyes and feel with their own hearts." - Albert Einstein [A lot of conflicts arise between people who have closed dependent minds. They divide the world into black and white, right and wrong with nothing in between. They view their way as the only right one and others' as wrong ones. They never try to be themselves, instead following the path others have shown them without much consideration or reflection. People in general categorize everything they see around them into different predefined categories. It helps them make quick decisions because they know what to do with a certain category. But how can we be so sure that the categories and the knowledge associated with each category, that our society and culture has taught us, is correct?] On Living “It's the possibility of having a dream come true that makes life interesting.” - Paulo Coelho "I have always wished that for myself...stay hungry, stay foolish." - Steve Jobs
“Life begins at the end of your comfort zone.” - Neale Donald Walsch "We are like newborn children, Our power is the power to grow." - Rabindranath Tagore “If we did all the things we are capable of doing, we would literally astound ourselves." - Thomas A. Edison "When one door of happiness closes, another opens; but often we look so long at the closed door that we do not see the one which has been opened for us.” ― Helen Keller [Being internally happy, satisfied and fulfilled and making others happier, more satisfied and more fulfilled is the most important goal in life. Worldly things, possessions, achievements are the tools for becoming happy, not the final goal in themselves.]
Immediately Jesus reached out his hand and caught him. "You of little faith," he said, "why did you doubt?" - Matthew 14:31. [You have faith and confidence - you win. You have fear and doubts - you lose.]
On imagination
"Good, he did not have enough imagination to become a mathematician". — Hilbert's response upon hearing that one of his students had dropped out to study poetry.
[People commonly believe that poetry, arts and literature require us to have imaginative powers. But in truth, Mathematics, Science and Engineering require far more sophisticated imaginative powers.]
"Logic will get you from A to B. Imagination will take you everywhere." - Albert Einstein
On Our Ignorance
"Sixty years ago I knew everything; now I know nothing; education is a progressive discovery of our own ignorance." - Will Durant "Everything that can be invented has been invented." - Charles Holland Duell, 1899. "Virtually nothing, and I mean this honestly, has been invented yet. We're just starting." - Woddy Norris, 2005.
"The universe is not only queerer than we imagine, but queerer than we can imagine." - J. B. S. Haldane
"There are more things in heaven and earth, Horatio, Than are dreamt of in your philosophy." - William Shakespeare (Hamlet)
[What we know as science is only part of the ultimate reality. The ultimate reality would be disclosed gradually in the future.]
Higher Philosophy “I believe that everything happens for a reason. People change so that you can learn to let go, things go wrong so that you appreciate them when they're right, you believe lies so you eventually learn to trust no one but yourself, and sometimes good things fall apart so better things can fall together.” ― Marilyn Monroe
[Many of the events seem to be part of different human-made plans. But there is an ultimate planner of the Universe. Nothing can go beyond His plans. God is the ultimate reason.]
"Ask and it will be given to you; seek and you will find; knock and the door will be opened to you." - Matthew 7:7
Being Smart
“I have no special talent. I am only passionately curious.” - Albert Einstein
“It’s not that I’m so smart, it’s just that I stay with problems longer.” - Albert Einstein
"If you can't explain it simply, you don't understand it well enough." - Albert Einstein Being Great “When ye are in the service of your fellow beings, ye are only in the service of your God” - Mosiah 2:17 [Serving others is the best way to serve God.] “Everybody can be great...because anybody can serve. You don't have to have a college degree to serve. You don't have to make your subject and verb agree to serve. You only need a heart full of grace. A soul generated by love.” ― Martin Luther King Jr.
Introduce game mechanics into the process of achieving goals.
Determine the Goal / Dream.
Dream is associated with emotional motivation and is a better word.
Typical Goals:
Life Objectives.
Compete. Compare yourself to others. Beat others! You don’t have to take part in a competition. You might just figure out what a person is good at and try to be better than him / her. In the process become better at something. Become a better you!
How do I build that product. What are the skills I need to master. How do I build everything that company has ever built.
Creative Visualization + Faith
Creative Visualization:
Visualization and Appreciation of how it feels like when the goal turns into reality.
Faith:
Strong belief that the goal is very much within reach. You can almost see how to achieve it.
Go through your past successes and accomplishments. Build you confidence.
Now, you should have a burning desire to achieve the goal.
Think backwards from the goal to present situation and find out requirements that lead you to the goal.
Make a plan.
Make a list of sub-goals that lead you to the main goal.
Start working. Keep scores.
Measure how much you have achieved and how much closer you are to the goal at regular time intervals. Use them as feedback. Success, progress pushes you just as getting closer to your desired goal does.
Make the whole process similar to the games you have played. Suppose, you are playing a game, and you have earned say, 70 points (Yay!) and you need 30 more (pretty close!) to reach the next level.
Exciting, huh?
Use feedback to your advantage.
Hey, that part is taking me too long to finish (Told you to keep scores!). What can I do to make things faster?
Master the skill.
Grow your sense of mastery.
Associate positive feelings with the task at hand.
Feel happy while you are doing it. Feel happy when you think of it.
This will help you reprogram your brain and feel happy whenever you think of the task.
Go back to step 2 whenever you need little bit of extra motivation.
Tom Mitchell & others applying Machine Learning Techniques to find correlations in
neural firing patterns, spikes and
behavior / thought.
Techniques, broadly defined:
Neuromechanics
Neuromodulation
Neural Repair and Regenesis
Optogenetics
Connectomics [2]
Neural patterns should be analogous to what is out there in the world (VS Ramachandran - Similarity of letters, image, sound [3]). Neural processing is modular (Vision - modules for color, shape, etc.).
