INTRODUCTION TO SCALA

For our February Meetup Gary Coady from GILT will present an introduction to Scala:

Scala is a language which can act as a bridge between the (mostly) imperative world of Java programming, and a more principled immutable functional-based approach, and thus could act as a "gateway drug" for the corporate world. Come along, and decide for yourself.

We will introduce the basics of this language and functional problem solving, using a number of easy exercises.

Prerequisites
Java 6 SDK (or newer)
http://java.com/en/download/ ­

Typesafe Activator
http://www.scala-lang.org/downl... (http://www.scala-lang.org/download/)­

Subjects to be covered
Scala introduction (JVM-based functional language)
for loops / comprehensions
Operators, expression syntax
Functions
Pattern matching
Option type (like Haskell Maybe, optional value, higher order type)
Case classes (Algebraic Data Types)

Optional KATa

I know that Richard posted the game of Nim below, but given the date we just found this other challenge that is probably a bit more suitable:

Draw a Heart shape

...as ASCII art!

http://i.stack.imgur.com/gXjjm.jpg

Your art doesn't have to look

exactly like this one, but it has to look like a Heart Shape.

The inside of of the heart has to contain the words "Love" at least 20 times

Rules The program must write the art to the console. Shortest code (in bytes, any language) wins (something, probably a glass of water :D ).