Groovy is an agile dynamic language for the Java Platform with many features that inspired languages like Python, Ruby and Smalltalk, making them available to Java developers using a Java-like syntax.

 Groovy works cleanly with all existing Java objects and libraries and compiles straight to Java bytecode!

 Groovy is ideally designed for the following purposes :

• Developing web applications in a quick, concise and fun way. The [*Grails|http://grails.codehaus.org]* demonstrates Groovy's capability in this area.
  * Bringing the power  of a scripting language to the JVM with seamless integration with the Java Platform
  * Writing concise, meaningful, test cases using Groovy's JUnit integration.
  * Prototyping and producing real industrial strength applications
  * Writing shell scripts easily

 *Groovy* can be used as a dynamically or staticly typed language and can either be compiled or interpreted

 Groovy introduces powerful additional features to the JVM such as:

• Language conceptual enhancements
  • Support for closures - re-usable blocks of code
  • Native syntax for lists and maps
  • Support the Gof Builder pattern via the notion of builders
  • Syntax level regex operators and escape sequences
  • Native JavaBean support
  • Operator overloading  to simplify working with datatypes Collections and Maps
  • Polymorphic iteration and autoboxing
  • Extension of Java Standard Library through the GDK
  • TBD
• In addition, Groovy provides useful standard features to enhance developer productivity such as:
  • Groovy Markup for XML, DOM, ...
  • Groovy Path expression language
  • Groovlets for implementing Servlets easily in simple Groovy scripts
  • Ant Scripting
  • Groovy Categories allow you to add methods to classes with the "use" keyword
  • Groovy Template Engines which are pluggable, simple to use, integrate GPath and compile to bytecode
  • Groovy SQL for making SQL more Groovy
• And providing great user defined modules
  • Grails
  • Gram
  • COM Scripting
  • GroovySWT
  • GSP
  • GSQL
  • Process
  • XMLRPC

Logo ideas "à la grails" for renewing the web site look and feel :

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{div:id=definition}
h3. Groovy...

* is an agile and *dynamic language* for the *Java Virtual Machine*
* builds upon the strengths of Java but has *additional power features* inspired by languages like Python, Ruby and Smalltalk
* makes *modern programming features* available to Java developers with *almost-zero learning curve*
* provides the ability to *statically type check* and *statically compile* your code for robustness and performance
* supports *Domain-Specific Languages* and other compact syntax so your code becomes *easy to read and maintain*
* makes writing shell and build scripts easy with its *powerful processing primitives*, OO abilities and an Ant DSL
* increases developer productivity by *reducing scaffolding code* when developing web, GUI, database or console applications
* *simplifies testing* by supporting unit testing and mocking out-of-the-box
* seamlessly *integrates with all existing Java classes and libraries*
* compiles straight to Java bytecode so you can use it anywhere you can use Java
{div}

Experience Groovy 2.1

def name='World'; println "Hello $name!"

class Greet {
  def name
  Greet(who) { name = who[0].toUpperCase() +
                      who[1..-1] }
  def salute() { println "Hello $name!" }
}

g = new Greet('world')  // create object
g.salute()               // output "Hello World!"

import static org.apache.commons.lang.WordUtils.*

class Greeter extends Greet {
  Greeter(who) { name = capitalize(who) }
}

new Greeter('world').salute()

groovy -e "println 'Hello ' + args[0]" World

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