title: Is it possible to use a Java 8 style method references in Scala?
body: <p>I'm developing a JavaFX8 application in Scala but I couldn't figure out how to pass a method reference to an event handler. To clarify, I'm not using ScalaFX library but build my application directly on top of JavaFX.</p>
  
  <p>Here's the related code snippet.</p>
  
  <p><strong>InputController.java</strong> (I wrote this test class in Java to isolate the issue to consume a method reference only)</p>
  
  <pre><code>public class InputController {
      public void handleFileSelection(ActionEvent actionEvent){
          //event handling code
      }
  
      public InputController() {
          //init controller
      }
  }
  </code></pre>
  
  <p><strong>This works (Java)</strong>
  </p>
  
  <pre><code>InputController inputController = new InputController();
  fileButton.setOnAction(inputController::handleFileSelection);
  </code></pre>
  
  <p><strong>This doesn't work (Scala)</strong>
  </p>
  
  <pre><code>val inputController = new InputController
  fileButton.setOnAction(inputController::handleFileSelection)
  </code></pre>
  
  <p>Here's the error message from the compiler (Scala 2.11.6).</p>
  
  <pre><code>Error:(125, 45) missing arguments for method handleFileSelection in class Main;
  follow this method with '_' if you want to treat it as a partially applied function
      fileButton.setOnAction(inputController::handleFileSelection)
                                              ^
  </code></pre>
  
  <p>If I use Scala 2.12.0-M2 instead, I get a different error message.</p>
  
  <pre><code>Error:(125, 45) missing argument list for method handleFileSelection in class Main
  Unapplied methods are only converted to functions when a function type is expected.
  You can make this conversion explicit by writing `handleFileSelection _` or `handleFileSelection(_)` instead of `handleFileSelection`.
      fileButton.setOnAction(inputController::handleFileSelection)
                                              ^
  </code></pre>
  
  <p>Is there a native way which Scala can leverage method references introduced in Java 8? I'm aware of the implicit conversions approach to use a lambda expression but I want to know if there is a way to use a method reference similar to Java 8 without needing to use the lambda decleration.</p>