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Groovy
Paradigm	object-oriented, scripting
Appeared in	2003
Designed by	JCP
Developer	Guillaume Laforge (Project Manager and JSR-241 Spec Lead)
Latest release	1.5/ December 7, 2007
Typing discipline	dynamic, strong
Influenced by	Python, Ruby, Perl, Smalltalk, Java
OS	Cross_platform (JVM)
License	Apache License V2.0
Website	groovy.codehaus.org

Groovy is an object-oriented programming language for the Java Platform as an alternative to the Java programming language. It can be viewed as a scripting language for the Java Platform, as it has features similar to those of Python, Ruby, Perl, and Smalltalk. In some contexts, the name JSR 241 is used as an alternate identifier for the Groovy language.

Groovy uses a Java-like curly bracket syntax which is dynamically compiled to JVM bytecodes and that works seamlessly with other Java code and libraries. The Groovy compiler can be used to generate standard Java bytecode to be used by any Java project. Groovy can also be used dynamically as a scripting language.

Groovy is currently undergoing standardization via the Java Community Process under JSR 241. Groovy 1.0 was released on January 2, 2007. After various betas and release candidates numbered 1.1, on December 7, 2007 Groovy 1.1 Final has been released and rebranded as Groovy 1.5 as a reflection of the great improvement made.

Groovy has a number of features not found in standard Java:

• Dynamic typing
• Native syntax for lists, maps, and regular expressions
• Closures
• Operator overloading

The following presents a side-by-side comparison of Java with Groovy:

Standard Java (Java 5+)

for (String item : new String [] {"Rod", "Carlos", "Chris"}) {
     if (item.length() <= 4) System.out.println(item);
 }

Groovy

["Rod", "Carlos", "Chris"].findAll{it.size() <= 4}.each{println it}

One noteworthy feature of Groovy is its native support for various markup languages such as XML and HTML. This feature enables the definition and manipulation of many types of heterogeneous data assets with a uniform syntax and programming methodology. For example:

the following Groovy code ...

import groovy.xml.MarkupBuilder
    def myXMLDoc = new MarkupBuilder()
    myXMLDoc.workbook {
       worksheet(caption:"Employees") {
          row(fname:"John", lname:"McDoe")
          row(fname:"Nancy", lname:"Davolio")
       }
       worksheet(caption:"Products") {
          row(name:"Veeblefeetzer", id:"sku34510")
          row(name:"Prune Unit Zappa", id:"sku3a550")
       }
    }
    println myXMLDoc

... produces the XML result:

>
        caption='Employees'>
           fname="John" lname="McDoe" />
           fname="Nancy" lname="Davolio" />
       >
        caption='Products'>
           name="Veeblefeetzer" id="sku34510" />
           name="Prune Unit Zappa" id="sku3a550" />
       >
    >

James Strachan first talked about the development of Groovy in his blog in August 2003. Several versions were released between 2004 and 2006. After the JCP standardization process began, the version numbering was changed and a version called "1.0" was released on Tuesday, January 2, 2007.

• Boo (programming language)
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• Jython
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Look up groovy in Wiktionary, the free dictionary.

• Official site
• JSR 241
• An introduction to Groovy
• Groovy and Apache Derby database - tutorial
• Open Directory: Java: Extensions: Groovy