What is Groovy?

Apache Groovy is a powerful, multi-paradigm programming language for the Java platform aimed at improving developer productivity thanks to a concise, familiar and easy to learn syntax. It integrates smoothly with any Java libraries, and delivers powerful enhancements and productivity features, including scripting capabilities, Domain-Specific Language authoring, runtime and compile-time meta-programming and functional programming.

Why use Groovy?

Groovy is like a super version of Java:

• It supports most Java syntax but allows simpler syntax for many constructs
• It supports all Java libraries but provides many extensions and its own productivity libraries
• It has a dynamic nature like Python, which means that it is very powerful, easy to learn, and productive
• It optionally has a static nature like Java and Kotlin, which makes it fast and provides extra type checking when desired
• It has first-class functional, stream processing and immutability support, meaning that it offers features similar to Scala and can offer many advantages when working in parallel processing or clustered environments
• It has great extensibility for the language and tooling
• It is free and open source and has a large community of users and developers around the world.

Requirements

Groovy 2.5.x (3.0.x) requires Java 7 (8) or a later runtime environment to be installed. Depending on what you are planning to do, you may need a Java Development Kit rather than just a Java Runtime Environment.