Introduction to Groovy

This Friday, I will be giving a presentation on Groovy at the university where I work (RIT). You can view the presentation online (with extra notes under "speaker notes") or as a PDF and you can view or download the source code for the examples. It is primarily meant for audiences already familar with Java code, but it should be approachable if you know other languages like C#. A description of the talk:

Groovy is a dynamic language for the Java Virtual machine inspired by Python, Ruby, and Smalltalk. After Java, it is the first approved JVM language (via JSR 241). Groovy can be used as a scripting language in a shell environment, a way for applications to provide scripting and extension capabilities, domain specific languages and configuration files, or as the base language for whole applications and frameworks such as Grails (like Ruby on Rails) and Griffon. Due to supporting most Java syntax and ability to integrate with any existing JVM code, Groovy is particularly useful for existing Java developers wanting to leverage dynamic languages while retaining use of the full Java ecosystem.

This talk will cover the following areas:

• Groovy syntax compared with Java
• How dynamic calls are implemented
• Closures
• Runtime Metaprogramming: how Groovy extends existing Java libraries
• Compile-time Metaprogramming (AST transformations)
• Creation of Domain Specific Langauges (DSLs)
• Code examples where Groovy's features make the strongest impact