What is "Scala Presentation Compiler"?

Question

What is the "Scala Presentation Compiler"?

Leptospirosis

Answer 1

The Scala Presentation Compiler is provided as part of Scala so that IDEs can have access to the intermediate information that doesn't make it into the final compiled output.

A quick googling gives this. Odersky also discussed it in this (very interesting) talk about what's coming in Scala 2.10 (at about 22 minutes in).

Indubitable

It would be better if you've linked that youtube video exactly at the time when Martin talks about Presentation Compiler (so others wouldn't need to search through the video). – Resendez

As a side note, I believe IDEA doesn't use it, but instead implemented their own version. – Joinder

On the IDEA topic, you are right. Here is the November 2011 thread where the question is asked: devnet.jetbrains.net/thread/430505 Alexander's reply is "I'm not sure that we will do it. We will spend time on improving current plugin, and I hope It will not be behind." – Lipoma

Answer 2

It's a compiler that provides the hooks necessary to work well to support the interactive features of an IDE, like color-coding, autocompletion, etc. One of the technical challenges is efficiently staying in sync with what's been edited. See this talk.

Tessie