Typesafe to integrate Play 2.0 into its Scala stack

The open source Java/Scala web framework Play 2.0, recently released as a beta, will be integrated into Typesafe's Scala based application stack. Typesafe, which launched in May, has built its Typesafe Stack, aimed at providing all the tools needed for Scala developers to create applications which address multi-core and cloud-scale computing workloads. The announcement by Typesafe notes that the addition of Play will make the stack "a complete web platform".

Previous versions of the Play framework have offered a platform for Java developers but the Play developers had explored the possibility of using Scala with a separate support module. With Play 2.0 the developers have gone for native integration of Scala whilst maintaining support for Java developers. Play 2.0 has been constructed using Akka for event-driven concurrency and sbt (Simple Build Tool) for managing compilation making it a natural fit for the Typesafe stack which already includes all those components. Typesafe plans to integrate Play 2.0 into its Typesafe subscription of support and maintenance for the tools which also includes the Scala IDE for Eclipse.

Play's creator, Guillaume Bort, will join the Typesafe Advisory board and his company, Zenexity, will collaborate with Typesafe on commercial projects, alongside the development of the Play framework within an open source community. Play 2.0 is under active development and will be integrated into the Typesafe Stack in future releases; the beta release is available on the Play 2.0 site and the Apache 2.0 licensed source is available from a GitHub repository.

Scala is a blend of object-oriented and functional languages which compiles to Java byte code and interoperates with Java code. This allows developers to use it alongside their existing Java infrastructure while gaining the benefits of Scala's extensible, statically typed language. Scale was initially created by Martin Odersky, now Chief Architect at Typesafe, at the programming research group at EPFL in Switzerland. In January, developers at EPFL, received €2.3 million funding from the European Research Council to further develop the language's capabilities.

(djwm)