Once upon a time, the only languages I trusted used static typing. This now seems silly, but is a fairly common attitude and for good reason. To a developer trained in C++ and Java formality, using Ruby or Python feels like anarchy. And there is that pejorative term “scripting language.”
At my first job after college I built Java Enterprise Web Services on the gruesome Servicemix platform. My task involved deploying the xml beasts and synchronizing our Cvs repository with the Devil’s own source control. Just maybe, this was a job for a scripting language. Just a taste couldn’t hurt…
So I found Groovy and got myself a copy of Groovy In Action.
At first, my Groovy scripts looked like Java, semicolons and all, since almost any Java program is also valid Groovy. An established codebase full of closures and duck types would have been alien, but to the programmer tiptoeing at the edge of dynamic language, Groovy felt very safe. After time, the same comforting safety eventually made Groovy feel like lugging Java baggage, but I highly recommend it for the programmer monogamous with Java. Just start renaming your Java files with Groovy extensions.
Next, drop a semicolon here and there and those ridiculous “throws Exception” clauses. Then, discover the “each” method; it seems like syntactic sugar, but explore. It involves some wacky thing called a closure. Write a function that takes a closure argument.
Every once in a while, try writing “def foo” instead of “String foo.” Surely dangerous, but promise yourself it will just be this one more time. The examples all do it; how bad could it be?
Ask yourself again, “What’s so great about closures?” Google says they sprout like weeds among the Ruby community. That’s still not a real language, but maybe Groovy is; it works with Java, after all.
Soon enough, you will realize Java feels stifling. “Dicing all this xml sure would be easier in Groovy,” you will think. You will notice and understand dynamic language zealots. The cool kids mostly run Ruby and Python. Java virtual machine startup delay is a drag for scripts, so try one of those.
No variable declarations at all? No damn curly brackets? You will be hooked.
Should Be Simple 