I wanted to use Scala for http://evocatus.com but I couldn’t pick a framework that was easy enough to understand and mature enough. I also couldn’t get AspectJ to work nicely with Scala. So we ended up going with Spring Roo. This was in part because I like AspectJ and Spring.

That being said I still don’t like Java and prefer something like F# or Scala. I hate JSP(X) even more. However one of the things I like about Java and Python web application dev is that their are lots of options. There is a good discussion of this plethora of Java Web App lib mashups on SO.

For Scala its not as clear what the “mashup” options are.

There is the Lift framework which no offense to David Pollock feels kind of like David Pollock’s playground.

Then there is the Play framework which has excellent Scala support.

Both frameworks are pretty much start from scratch  in terms of methodology, frameworks, and libraries used. Play doesn’t even use a Servlet Container.

While this is nice and all I have 10 years of Java web dev knowledge that I can’t really apply to either of the frameworks. Sure a lot of what I know is crap (JSP and its bullshit comes to mind). But lots of it is good like the Springframework, AspectJ, JPA, JAX-RS, even Servlet filters.

So I’m on a quest to build my own Scala web stack:

• JAX-RS or Spring MVC
• JPA
• Lots of Traits for where I used AspectJ
• Scalata (kill JSP/Velocity/Freemarker).

Maybe Scala will have a Raible-like AppFuse?