Easy Scala Builds with the Mill Build Tool
summary
Mill is a Scala/Java/Kotlin build tool that replaces SBT/Maven/Gradle habits with object-oriented build definitions where tasks are normal methods, enabling full IDE jump-to-definition and easy custom tasks (example: a line-count task written in plain Scala, saved into generated resources and used at runtime). It ports a real 20-subproject Gatling codebase with an auto-importer and runs mostly successfully with one failing chart test, uses a long‑lived daemon-backed server for hot performance, offers chrome profiles for per-command timing, and has built‑in selective testing of downstream modules.
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chapters (10)
- 0:00Build tool challenges
- 10:05Why build tools are hard
- 16:02Mill overview and advantages
- 18:32Mill performance and testing
- 23:07Mill IDE support demo
- 27:22Extensibility without plugins
- 35:54Functional vs OO builds
- 42:33Mill's unique approach
- 43:14Mill docs and migration demo
- 45:02Q&A
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