Chapter 3. Working with the Xtend Programming Language

In this chapter, we will introduce the Xtend programming language, a fully featured general purpose Java-like language that is completely interoperable with Java. Xtend has a more concise syntax than Java and provides powerful features such as type inference, extension methods, dispatch methods, and lambda expressions, not to mention multiline template expressions, which are useful when writing code generators. All the aspects of a DSL implemented in Xtext can be implemented in Xtend instead of Java, since it is easier to use and allows you to write better readable code. Since Xtend is completely interoperable with Java, you can reuse all the Java libraries. Moreover, all the Eclipse JDT (Java Development Tools) will work with Xtend seamlessly.

This chapter will cover the following topics:

• An introduction to the Xtend programming language
• A description of the main features of Xtend, which we will use throughout the book