Today we are going to look at what is groovy and a basic introduction to Apache Groovy language.
What is Apache Groovy?
Groovy is a powerful optionally tight & dynamic language for Java platform for improving productivity. The Groovy language was inspired from various other programming languages like Python, Ruby & SmallTalk making them available to Java developers with Java like syntax.
It have more of a Java like syntax and hence Java developers might find it easy to get started with Groovy and its concepts.
Some of the Pros of Groovy are as follows:
Flat Learning Curve:
Groovy is concise, readable and has got expressive syntax. It is easy to learn for Java developers.
Smooth Java Integration:
Groovy seamlessly and transparently integrates and interoperates with Java and any third-party libraries.
Vibrant & Rich Ecosystem:
There are product development code for nearly all of the applications like web development, reactive applications, concurrency/asynchronous library, test frameworks, build tools, code analysis etc. Its really a good community of developers contributing and seems to be growing every year.
Powerful Features:
Groovy offers some of the powerful features like closures, builders, runtime & compile time meta programming, functional programming, type inference and static compilation. We will be looking at each of them and how useful they are for the programming in the upcoming posts.
Domain Specific Languages:
Otherwise called as DSL, Groovy offers flexible and malleable syntax, advanced integration and customization mechanisms, to integrate readable business rules in your applications.
Scripting & Testing Glue:
Groovy is great for writing concise and maintainable tests, and for all your build and automation tasks.
Groovy is backed by Apache Software Foundation with almost 10 Million downloads. Many companies like Google, MTv, Netflix, Nestle, etc use Groovy.
