Access the Eclipse Scala compiler from the terminal

Question

I'm just starting out with Scala (trying to setup Eclipse, Lift and SBT on Mac Lion) and I'm not sure if I need the scala compiler through homebrew or can I just use the built in Eclipse Scala compiler through Eclipse and (if I also need to) through the Terminal.

If that's a good idea, how do I run it through the terminal ?

Answer 1

You won't be able to access the Eclipse-IDE scala compiler through terminal, so if you want terminal access, you should install a standalone scala interpreter separately.

While you don't technically need terminal access since Eclipse will compile everything for you and you can run the interpreter through Eclipse (Window -> Show View -> Scala Interpreter), I like to have the option, so I always have a separate installation of the same version of the compiler that Eclipse uses.

Answer 2

Instead if installing scala, I normally have a blank sbt project, and start the scala REPL by doing

sbt console

This allows me to easily change scala versions and if I add dependencies to the project, they will be added to the console classpath.