Let's pretend that these 7 things are really important and makes Lift different. The key hurdle of people adopting Lift is probably the Scala language more than anything. If people feel like they are comfortable in a language, they'll use anything they can get their hands on just to have some fun.
But does it look like people are having fun with Scala? When I learned SML in school, I remembered it was quite pleasant. The syntax was simple, type signatures were easy to read and be understood, and the rules were very straight-forward. Basically, I could fit the entire language in my head.
When I learned Java on my first job, I remembered it was also quite pleasant. The syntax was familiar, and concepts easy to grasp. It was verbose as ever, but hey, as least I could brain dump my thoughts into the source code, and read other people's brain dumps. Then Java 1.5 came with its "generics" that can't even remember it's own type after compilation...
A couple years later we now have this bastard child monster all grown up called Scala with its hybrid parametric P /subtype S polymorphic _ with implicit DSL <: smilies and the ever redundant parentheses and braces still in the control structures of a 201x language with optional .s and () in function calls. Don't even get me started on its suicide note that's called the Scala 2.8 Collections in the standard library.
I'm sorry, but I just don't see how this language eco-system can reach a critical mass with the handful of libraries it has now. Maybe when the tools are up to speed in a few years, smart Java people who are sick of Java will migrate over. It just has way too many rules and surprises.
Please, do start on the 2.8 collections. I'm curious to know what your problems are that an actual user of the collections would run into when using them.
But does it look like people are having fun with Scala? When I learned SML in school, I remembered it was quite pleasant. The syntax was simple, type signatures were easy to read and be understood, and the rules were very straight-forward. Basically, I could fit the entire language in my head.
When I learned Java on my first job, I remembered it was also quite pleasant. The syntax was familiar, and concepts easy to grasp. It was verbose as ever, but hey, as least I could brain dump my thoughts into the source code, and read other people's brain dumps. Then Java 1.5 came with its "generics" that can't even remember it's own type after compilation...
A couple years later we now have this bastard child monster all grown up called Scala with its hybrid parametric P /subtype S polymorphic _ with implicit DSL <: smilies and the ever redundant parentheses and braces still in the control structures of a 201x language with optional .s and () in function calls. Don't even get me started on its suicide note that's called the Scala 2.8 Collections in the standard library.
I'm sorry, but I just don't see how this language eco-system can reach a critical mass with the handful of libraries it has now. Maybe when the tools are up to speed in a few years, smart Java people who are sick of Java will migrate over. It just has way too many rules and surprises.