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April 2024 advisory board minutes
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‎minutes/_posts/2024-04-25-april-25-2024.md

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---
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layout: contact
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---
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# Minutes of the 32nd meeting of the Scala Center, Q1 2024
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Minutes are [archived](https://scala.epfl.ch/records.html) on the
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Scala Center website.
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## Summary
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The following agenda was distributed to attendees:
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[agenda](https://github.com/scalacenter/advisoryboard/blob/main/agendas/032-2024-q1.md).
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We were joined by two new board members, Dmitrii Naumenko (JetBrains)
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and Zainab Ali (community representative).
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Center activities for the past quarter focused on pipelined
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compilation (Scala 3), TASTy Reader (Scala 2), Scala.js minifier (2
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and 3), WebAssembly backend for Scala.js (2 and 3), Metals debugger (2
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and 3), presentation compiler (3), sbt 2.x (2 and 3), the Scala
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Ambassadors initiative, Google Summer of Code, conferences (Scala.IO
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and Scalar), compiler sprees, combating Scala website scammers,
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and fundraising.
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Details are below and in the Center's activity report:
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* [report](https://scala.epfl.ch/records/2024-Q1-activity-report.html)
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No new proposals were received this quarter.
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Other topics covered included Scala Days community discussions around
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"lean Scala" and "direct style" and related concepts, Scala LTS
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vs. Scala Next, the Scala Native 0.5 upgrade, and more.
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## Date, Time and Location
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The meeting took place virtually on Friday, April 25, 2024 at
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15:00 (UTC).
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Minutes were taken by Seth Tisue (secretary).
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## Attendees
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Officers:
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* Chris Kipp (chairperson)
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* Darja Jovanovic (executive director), EPFL
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* Sébastien Doeraene (interim technical director), EPFL
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* Martin Odersky (technical advisor), EPFL
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* Seth Tisue (secretary), Lightbend
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Board members:
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* Zainab Ali, community representative
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* Krzysztof Borowski, VirtusLab
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* Dmitrii Naumenko, JetBrains
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* Lukas Rytz, Lightbend
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* Daniela Sfregola, Morgan Stanley
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* Eugene Yokota, community representative
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Apologies:
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* Michel Davit, Spotify
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## Introduction
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Our two new board members introduced themselves.
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Dmitrii Naumenko will represent JetBrains, who have just finished
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joining the board. Dmitrii is the leader of the IntelliJ Scala plugin
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team there.
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Zainab Ali is a new community representative, serving alongside Eugene
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Yokota. She has been organizing the London Scala Users Group for the
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last five years or so. She describes herself as a functional Scala
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developer who does training in the functional space.
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## Technical report
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Seb, as interim technical director, summarized Scala Center activities
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since the last meeting. His remarks were based on the Center's more
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detailed Q1 quarterly activity report:
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* [report](https://scala.epfl.ch/records/2024-Q1-activity-report.html)
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And the Center's Q2 roadmap:
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* [roadmap](https://scala.epfl.ch/records/2024-Q2-roadmap.html)
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The following notes do not repeat the contents of the report and
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roadmap, but only supplement them.
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(No questions were asked about Seb's updates, so there are no further
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notes here.)
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## Management and financial report
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Darja presented this section.
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In February, the Center published their [2024
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roadmap](https://www.scala-lang.org/blog/2024/02/06/scala-center-2024-roadmap.html).
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The Center published two blog posts about scammers targeting Scala users:
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* https://scala-lang.org/blog/2024/03/01/fake-scala-courses.html
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* https://www.scala-lang.org/blog/2024/03/18/scam-response.html
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Combating these scams consumed considerable time and effort, but the
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good news is that the scamming activity did stop.
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At the Scalar conference in Warsaw, the Center organized a meeting of
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conference and meetup organizers and also launched the new [Scala
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Ambassadors program](https://scala-lang.org/blog/2024/03/28/ambassadors-initiative.html).
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The Center's participation in Google Summer of Code for 2024 is moving
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ahead.
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The Center's moderation team met in person in Lausanne to share knowledge
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and experiences and to discuss and strategize.
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The Center's governance project made progress which Darja summarized.
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That work was eventually completed later in the year, as described
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in this October 2024 blog post:
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* https://www.scala-lang.org/news/new-governance.html
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Several engineers completed their time at the Center and moved on:
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Anatolii Kmetiuk, Jamie Thompson, and Jedrzej Rochala. Seb will be
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teaching part-time at EPFL, so his effort level at the Center will be
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reduced to 50%. Hiring new engineers would require new funding.
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The Center's 2024 roadmap reflects the smaller size of the engineering
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team. Center staff will travel less unless the travel is sponsored.
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The Center will continue to "support, empower, and amplify" active
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Scala communities and community members to accomplish things that the
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Center itself cannot.
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The Center continues to collect income from its MOOCs, but the amount
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continues to gradually decline.
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Fundraising efforts are ongoing. Multiple leads are being pursued.
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The effort to revive Scala Days for 2025 is ongoing. In the meantime,
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the Scala website's [events page](https://www.scala-lang.org/events/)
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is kept up to date with upcoming events.
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## Scala 2 report
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This was presented by Lukas.
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Since the last meeting, Scala 2.12.19 and 2.13.13 were released,
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and 2.13.14 is almost ready. The 2.13.14 cycle was short because
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of a few regressions. 2.13.14 introduces `-Xsource-features`.
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Lukas contributed an sbt PR, now merged, which aligns sbt with
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[SIP-51](https://docs.scala-lang.org/sips/drop-stdlib-forwards-bin-compat.html),
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which will allow the Scala 2.13 standard library (which is also used
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by Scala 3) to make additions again. A process for that will need
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to be set up.
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## Community report
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This section was led by Eugene and Zainab.
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They said that in the community there is a great deal of discussion,
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some confusion and uncertainty, and even some tension around the
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following complex of issues and developments: effect systems, the
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advent of Project Loom, the concept of "direct style", and Martin's
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[blog post](https://odersky.github.io/blog/2024-04-11-post.html) about
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"lean Scala". Discussion involving nearly the entire board ensued.
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Eugene said there was also some confusion in the community about Scala
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LTS vs Scala Next. As will be described in the next minutes, Zainab
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later submitted a proposal asking the Center to provide clearer public
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guidance on this, and that proposal was completed by the publication
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of [this new page](https://scala-lang.org/development/).
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Zainab praised the organizers gathering at Scalar in Warsaw in March,
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which was "useful" in strengthening networking between conference and
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meetup organizers. In London they are hoping to do even more events
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besides just talks, such as workshops, open-source sprees, and katas.
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She also expressed hope that the Center's new [Scala
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Ambassadors](https://scala-lang.org/blog/2024/03/28/ambassadors-initiative.html)
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initiative will help onboard people who want to get more involved with
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community.
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Zainab mentioned that pushing the Scala Native 0.4 to 0.5 upgrade
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through the open source ecosystem has been difficult. In response, Seb
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recalled when Scala.js went from 0.6 to 1.0, a transition he described
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as "difficult and long", yet necessary. Scala Native 0.4 was 3 to 4
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years ago, so the big jump to 0.5 is now "unfortunately necessary",
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but the Native team "very much hopes" that this is "the last one
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before 1.0", which is probably "a few years down the line". Eugene
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added that setting up a Scala.js or Scala Native community build, like
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the existing JVM-centric Scala 2 and Scala 3 community builds, could
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really help (if resources could be found for such an effort). Seth
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added that library maintainers shouldn't be shy about requesting help
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from Scala Native enthusiasts, rather than feeling obligated to sort
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out problems themselves.
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## Conclusion
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Darja intends to organize an in-person advisory board meeting to be
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held at EPFL in the fall. Everyone on the board indicated they would
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make an effort to attend. (The in-person meeting did in fact occur, in
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September, and it will be covered in the next minutes.)

‎records.md

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### Board meeting minutes
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- [April 25, 2024 - Thirty-Second SC Advisory Board Meeting](/minutes/2024/04/25/april-25-2024.html)
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- [February 7, 2024 - Thirty-First SC Advisory Board Meeting](/minutes/2024/02/07/february-7-2024.html)
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- [October 17, 2023 - Thirtieth SC Advisory Board Meeting](/minutes/2023/10/17/october-17-2023.html)
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- [July 26, 2023 - Twenty-Ninth SC Advisory Board Meeting](/minutes/2023/07/26/july-26-2023.html)

‎records/2022-Q4-activity-report.md

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The significance of the project is to ensure the long-term sustainability of Scala 3. Scala 3's team is smaller than corresponding teams of many other programming languages. We need to ensure that the project is not dependent on a small number of people, but rather on a large number of people who are interested in contributing to the compiler. Compiler Academy is one of the avenues that ensure a stream of new compiler enthusiasts.
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You can learn more about the Academy [here](https://compileracademy.carrd.co/). [Here](https://www.scala-lang.org/blog/2022/11/02/compiler-academy.html) is the blog post announcing opening it up.
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You can learn more about the Academy here (dead link: httpx://compileracademy.carrd.co/). [Here](https://www.scala-lang.org/blog/2022/11/02/compiler-academy.html) is the blog post announcing opening it up.
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### Community Expansion
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‎records/2023-Q1-activity-report.md

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[dotty#17088](https://github.com/lampepfl/dotty/pull/17088)
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Additionally, our collaborations with members of the community, either
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asynchronously or as part of the [Compiler
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Academy](https://compileracademy.carrd.co/), led to improvements
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asynchronously or as part of the Compiler
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Academy, led to improvements
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in the following areas:
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- Type inference
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[dotty#17092](https://github.com/lampepfl/dotty/pull/17092)

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