It all really started when Bob Pasker asked me if db4o worked with scala. That kind of subtext is usually all I need to start exploring another programming language. Specially one of such a tasty functional flavor.

My experiment was to port a simple time tracking application I wrote for myself some time ago from .net/boo to jvm/scala.

The application works as a tray icon that lets you right-click your way through projects and tasks. There's no reporting interface other than a REPL window that allows you to execute arbitrary code against the app's object model :)

It actually took me only a week to get it up and running on the three major platforms I work with (windows, linux and macosx) thanks to scala, db4o and swt.

My impression so far is pretty darn good.

Scala is a beautiful language.

The tight integration with java means great tools such as db4o work out of the box.

And the eclipse support goes as far as supporting eclipse plugins written in scala (niiiice).

If you do java you should really be giving scala a ride.

You can find the application at http://code.google.com/p/sttracker/.

There's a readme with instructions on how to get it running either through eclipse or ant.

Even if you dont care about the time tracking functionality at all I think the SWT REPL window should give you some fun :)