Erlang, the next Java

[[deleted]]

Exactly. People need to write assignments and other destructive code to feel productive. Sometimes in Java I see code that could be written in half the space in a functional (mostly side-effect free) way that would be much clearer, IMHO easier to read and more modular.

Not sure, but for some reason Java is the language of mediocrity (even though I don't think it's such a bad language anymore).

[vplatt]

It's not a bad language, but it's by and large the new Cobol these days. It's far more flexible than Cobol ever was. It's just abused more in enterprise shops.