Odersky's Programming in Scala is a fantastic book, but unfortunately so far as I know it has not been updated for the last couple of versions of the language and libraries which have some significant changes.
Still, it stands out to me as the best introduction to the language.
To expand on this, Programming in Scala is based on Scala 2.8. We're now on 2.10 with 2.11 coming up (it's in RC mode right now).
Fortunately, this means that the book is up-to-date with 2.8's major collections refactor.
I would say the biggest change to the standard library since then are the deprecation of scala.actors and their replacement by Akka actors. I think that's the only chapter in the book that's no longer relevant. There are a few smaller ones (replacement of scala.Application with scala.App) and a few nice additions (implicit classes aka Ruby monkey patching) but I can't think of anything substantial for a beginner.
saryant|12 years ago
Fortunately, this means that the book is up-to-date with 2.8's major collections refactor.
I would say the biggest change to the standard library since then are the deprecation of scala.actors and their replacement by Akka actors. I think that's the only chapter in the book that's no longer relevant. There are a few smaller ones (replacement of scala.Application with scala.App) and a few nice additions (implicit classes aka Ruby monkey patching) but I can't think of anything substantial for a beginner.