Beginner-friendly UX for Scala Platform

Continuing the discussion from Adding better-files to the Scala Platform:

What would be (ideally) a beginner-friendly UX for getting started with the platform, and how does one (realistically) get there?

The Scala Platform is a stable collection of libraries with widespread use and a low barrier to entry for beginners and intermediate users.
Through a collaborative and meritocratic development process, the Scala Platform provides a smooth and productive programming experience right from the start, both for learning purposes and production use.

The easiest proposal discussed (IIRC) was a meta-dependency for SBT, with the downsides we understand about resource use. But could one do better? What about…

  • an “Add Scala Platform” ScalaIDE action?
  • Platform-using templates for your favorite project template engine? (Lightbend Activator, GitHub - softprops/np: new sbt project generation made simple(r), giter8, maybe an engine made part of the platform?)
  • some way to add needed libraries on demand more easily?
  • educational resources coordinated with such tools?

That’s just brainstorming — some items are easy other potentially harder, and I’m not sure what the actual pain point are there. I’ve actually taught some Scala at university but never dealt with this problem. And I’ve never tried teaching Scala to real beginners, the ones most likely to benefit from such tools.

There is a related discussion here https://contributors.scala-lang.org/t/how-do-i-use-the-scala-platform

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