jvm / scala / lift application stack?

3
votes

After some research before decision making, decided to start a heavy comet based project on Scala's Lift.

What's a recommended application stack for lift on scala?

I'm leaning towards: Jetty / (DB ? (Postgre/Mysql ?) / Scala / Lift / SBT / (Eclipse as IDE )

I'm probably going to be developing on Windows and deploying on Ubuntu Server, so what would be a recommended way to start off.

I'm thinking of: Install full Java SDK (do I need J2EE ? ) , then JEtty, Scala, Lift, SBT, then Eclipse with the Scala plugin (should I be looking into IntelliJ or Netbeans ? )

Anything I need to keep in mind?

1
eclipsescalalift
Why develop on Windows if you intend to deploy on Ubuntu? - Rex Kerr
1- Have used Linux and Solaris as server environments for a long time now, but Windows as a desktop environment (Mac only for iPhone development) for that same time. Used to it by now. 2- Not sure if Adobe suite is available in Linux, and also other Windows only programs such as EMS or Visual Studio for the .NET projects 3- Virtual env are usually pretty lagging to use as desktop environments All that said though, if after setting up both envs (Windows and UbuntuSVR) there are issues then I'm open to use Linux for dev as well. Think all should be fine tho, since everything uses the jvm - haknick
@REX Kerr ... was trying to edit my comment and couldn't so removed it and re-entered ... sorry about it - haknick
(copying my previous answer and adding): Ah, okay. If you're making heavy use of Adobe's Creative Suite, you're right, you're better off in Windows. I was going to suggest that the testing cycle would be easier with everything on the same machine, but not if you're making heavy use of Adobe's tools. I don't really like the VM solution either for desktops. - Rex Kerr

1 Answers

4
votes

Currently the IntelliJ Scala plugin is a lot more useful than the Eclipse one. Since Martin Odersky recently started work on the Eclipse plugin it is expected that soon it will be greatly improved, but at this point there are only beta version of the new plugin(and they are not particularly stable).

SBT is going a lot of internal changes right now(the new 0.9 version is nothing like 0.7.x) and doesn't integrate very well with IDEs currenty - most SBT IDE plugins are quite basic at this point so I sometimes prefer to use Maven 3 with the Scala plugin or generate native IDE projects for Eclipse/IntelliJ with an SBT plugin.

If you decided to stick with SBT I recommend you to have a look at Lifty as well. Other than that your stack seems to be completely adequate.

One sidenote - when you start developing the project ignore older tutorials that don't use Designer Friendly Templates and css selectors(in other words don't use bind). Simply Lift and Lift in Action both describe these newer(and arguably better) techniques.