Apache Groovy vs. Java vs. Scala vs. ZenScript Comparison Chart

Apache Groovy is a powerful, optionally typed and dynamic language, with static-typing and static compilation capabilities, for the Java platform aimed at improving developer productivity thanks to a concise, familiar and easy to learn syntax. It integrates smoothly with any Java program, and immediately delivers to your application powerful features, including scripting capabilities, Domain-Specific Language authoring, runtime and compile-time meta-programming and functional programming. Concise, readable and expressive syntax, easy to learn for Java developers. Closures, builders, runtime & compile-time meta-programming, functional programming, type inference, and static compilation. Flexible & malleable syntax, advanced integration & customization mechanisms, to integrate readable business rules in your applications. Great for writing concise and maintainable tests, and for all your build and automation tasks.

Scala combines object-oriented and functional programming in one concise, high-level language. Scala's static types help avoid bugs in complex applications, and its JVM and JavaScript runtimes let you build high-performance systems with easy access to huge ecosystems of libraries. The Scala compiler is smart about static types. Most of the time, you need not tell it the types of your variables. Instead, its powerful type inference will figure them out for you. In Scala, case classes are used to represent structural data types. They implicitly equip the class with meaningful toString, equals and hashCode methods, as well as the ability to be deconstructed with pattern matching. In Scala, functions are values, and can be defined as anonymous functions with a concise syntax.