The scala-cli project is a promising tool for learners, with an explicit goal to be a simple install and run. https://scala-cli.virtuslab.org/
The current official “getting started” guide is quite elaborate and require a visit to the coursier page, which in turn directly assumes terminal knowledge etc. Overview · Coursier
@julienrf Can you perhaps share some of the joint strategy behing the efforts of Virtuslabs and Scala Center on the future of the old scala runner and the more versatile scala-cli and the cs tool? Is there a chance of consolidating all this into one single, consistent UX?
It is true that the current getting started instructions assume terminal knowledge. I didn’t think that would be an issue.
Regarding scala-cli, for now I believe it should replace the scala command-line tool, but I am not sure yet it should replace cs. I prefer going one step at a time. To be able to replace cs, I think it would have to have the ability to “install” apps (such as installing sbt), which is not on their roadmap as far as I know.
According to Under the hood | Scala CLIscala-cli already uses Coursier under the hood, so I guess it would be possible to let scala-cli install stuff by just delegating to cs. Would that be an ok solution enough so that it could “replace” cs, in the sense of being the default go-to for the getting started?
It is ok to require terminal to install but, ideally I think that there should be some hint on how to do that in practice. The coursier page is a heavy read, with no specific hints on how to do this, if you are a beginner. There are offical guides for Apple and also from Microsoft how to install windows terminal.
My gut feeling is still to follow a more step by step approach (first, I think it would be extremely valuable to replace the existing scala interpreter with the scala-cli run interpreter), but you’re right that adding support for scala-cli install … seems to be low-hanging fruit. I think we should discuss that with the Scala-CLI team.