Does it make sense to write a forum in Scala? [closed]

Question

I'm looking for a meaningful task to learn Scala (something which is usable at the end and not only programming exercise), and I also have to make a forum, and I don't want to learn PHP... so I'm thinking about implementing an open source forum in Scala.

But does this make sense? Forums don't have high performance or scalability requirements... and also Java Hosting is more expensive, so even if my forum software is free, most people will not use it.

Am I missing use cases where forum written in Scala/Java makes sense, and is preferable over a PHP (or similar) forum?

I found for example this:

http://java-source.net/open-source/forum-software

But it seems to be abandoned, like stated here:

http://www.coderanch.com/t/497053/Ranch-Office/forum-has-been-built-JForum

So probably I'm correct that easy & cheap & slow is far more suitable for a forum = PHP?

Molten

I'm afraid I don't really see the use-cases either... I think most people looking for forum software are going to go with the most universally available and easiest to setup, which is probably going to be some PHP-based solution. I don't really see the task as playing to Scala's strengths either (well, maybe XML literals...). – Crites

Maybe try something simpler e.g. library with traits for logging or any other useful stuff – Molarity

I for one would be interested in having a good forum project in the Scala ecosystem, and platforms like Heroku and Amazon EC2 are helping to make JVM web application hosting cheaper and easier. (Also the world doesn't particularly need more PHP forum software.) – Fungous

@LarryOBrien maybe it could be fun with Lift framework... but still no direct benefic from the point of view of a normal user. – Molten

On the other side it could be a source of innovation in forum software, different language, different concepts... new ideas. – Molten

Sounds like a great idea. Today's forum software wasn't around 10 years ago, and no-one's going to be using today's solutions in 10 years' time, so go for it. I would spend some time thinking about what's wrong with forums today and making it better, rather than just producing a clone of stuff that already exists. – Ear

Did you ever start writing any Scala forum software? (I'm also thinking about writing new forum software in Scala) – Mossy

Nope. Got other things to do. – Molten

Answer 1

I think an open source forum written in Scala would be useful if you can structure it in a way that makes it easy to integrate with existing web apps using the Lift and Play frameworks.

Your target audience should be anyone writing a web app in Scala who wants to tack on a forum. The prospect of using a php based solution won't be enticing to these developers, but neither will be reimplementing the wheel. You have a pretty compelling value proposition if you create a well written, easy to implement solution using the same stack that they are already leveraging.

Cleveland

Answer 2

It depends on the purpose of the exercise.

You want to learn Scala and need a project for exercise: Anything goes, so does a forum. But it would probably be more interesting to get involved in some existing open source project. Think about the 5 first libraries you would probably consider for a project (logging, testing, web framework) check them out, find one that is open for contribution. Grab a bug or feature request and try to implement it.

You want some forum Forget it. Use some existing solution.

Somebody forces you to write a forum If things like being hostable on almost arbitrary webspace isn't a requirement, go ahead use Scala.

You want to prove the power of Scala to yourself or somebody else Go for something more challenging (Big Data, Akka ...)

Nutrient