Scala 2.10-M1 and 2.9 same time on Devel Machine?

Question

Edit:
Got it sorted, SCALA_HOME + /bin to PATH sets the default interpreter; i.e. typing "scala" from bash prompt invokes 2.9.1 in my case. Just downloaded 2.10.0.M1. Invoking /path/to/2.10/bin/scala from bash brings up 2.10 REPL.

I'll just add a terminal alias for 2.10 so I don't have to type out the path manually.

Original:
Do I need a guest VM to pull this off, or in Linux, can I somehow run 2.10 and 2.9 side-by-side?

Basically, I'd like to experiment with 2.10-M1 reflection and see what runtime havoc I can wreak on case classes while continuing with general 2.9.1 development.

If not, a Kotlin-esque web demo sure would be nice to mess around with during the 2.10 evolution...

Answer 1

There is no problem at all with installing multiple versions of Scala; just install them in two different directories. Make sure you call the right version of scalac, scala and other executables when you want to use a specific version.

Scala does not require any system-wide settings that prevent you from having more than one version on your computer at once.

Answer 2

They will co-exist just fine. Remember that scala is really just a thin wrapper around Java from a runtime perspective. That is:

• you can run compiled scala using the standard $JAVA_HOME/bin/java as long as scala-library.jar is on the classpath
• the REPL is contained within a scala distribution