Tudor Zgureanu

Findings and learnings from running 1:1s

1:1s are a good opportunity to catch up with each team member, discuss what is on our minds, get to know each other better, and build relationships. Imagine this as some time set aside, periodically, for you and each individual in your team. 1:1s are one of the

Apache Kafka

Define topic schema for Kafka using Protobuf (with examples in Scala)

Introduction Low-latency messaging in big distributed systems has never been easy. Developing systems with many microservices that rely on messaging for cross service communication, especially when the services are developed by different teams, brings a lot of challenges. It requires discipline and a clear exchange contract. The last thing you

Scala

Adding support for call-by-need (aka lazy arguments) using scalameta

In my previous blog post we have discussed the evaluation strategies in Scala and the difference between call-by-value, call-by-name and call-by-need. Also, I have shown a small workaround for evaluating the arguments lazily (aka call-by-need). As previously presented, the workaround for call-by-need arguments consists of local lazy values which are

Scala

Evaluation strategies in Scala

Evaluation strategies are one of the most important traits of programming languages. Hence, I chose this topic for the current blog post. We are going to have a quick introduction to evaluation strategies and then look at the evaluation strategies supported by Scala. Programming languages use evaluation strategies to determine

Erlang

A whirlwind introduction to Erlang

As I mentioned in my previous post, I recently took the Functional Programming in Erlang course. Being a Scala developer, I was always wondering how different languages apply the Functional Programming paradigm, especially when it comes to the main source of inspiration for Akka. In this post I will provide

Erlang

Functional Programming in Erlang course overview

A new course on functional programming has finished on Future Learn. Now it was the time for some Erlang. Organised by The University of Kent and taught by Professor Simon Thompson this course is a very good opportunity to explore how Erlang applies the functional programming paradigm. The course lasts

Scala

A quick look at scala-async

Intro Scala-async is a library for asynchronous programming. It provides a simple API to handle asynchronous method calls using the imperative way, which in some cases is more convenient. It was first added in C# and F# and then ported to other languages like Scala, Python, Javascript etc. Sometimes you

Haskell

Functional Programming in Haskell course overview

Recently a very nice Haskell course on Future Learn has finished. It has been created at the University of Glasgow - the virtual birthplace of the Haskell language, where many of its original developers worked. The purpose of this course is to get started with functional programming, even if you

Akka

Demystifying Akka Extensions

When it comes to adding features to Akka, there is an elegant way to do that by using a very handy extension mechanism called Akka Extensions. Adding a custom extension requires implementing two basic components: Extension and ExtensionId. There are many examples of extensions that will bring your application and

Akka

Akka starter kit

This post comes as a continuation for Scala starter kit. If you are new to Scala ecosystem I would recommend to check it out. Being a Scala developer there is a big chance you will develop highly concurrent and scalable applications using Akka. This article comes with some high level

Scala

Akka Persistence: Testing Persistent Actors

Akka persistence provides functionality for persisting the internal state of an actor so it can be recovered when the actor is started, restarted after a shutdown/crash or migrated in a cluster. The main idea behind Akka persistence is Event Sourcing, where the individual changes to an actor are persisted

Scala

What's new in ScalaTest 3

ScalaTest 3.0.0 was recently released. Being a major release it brings lots of features, changes (some of them potentially breaking) and new deprecations. In this post I will focus more on the main additions and enhancements, followed by some code examples. Installation Add this line to your sbt

Scala

Scala starter kit

Mastering Scala seems to be an impossible mission. But taking the right approach will make the challenge way easier. In this article I am going to share some resources and tips my friends and I have used when learning Scala. Enjoy the reading! Books Programming in Scala, 3rd edition by