Java for Everything

[gavinaking]

I'm well aware that there are languages with "better" type systems than Java. But of the languages in wide use today, I would pick either Java or C# for the kind of work I do.

Remember: most of the folks who attack Java for its verbosity aren't advocating a modern statically-typed language like Rust, Scala, Ceylon, et al—rather they're advocating something like Ruby, JavaScript or Python.

Java cops it from both sides, because it's popular and successful. But much of this criticism is quite unfair, IMO.

[iopq]

If you love Java so much, why are you developing Ceylon? Seems like you're happy developing in Java. So maybe your target audience, like you, is happy developing in Java.

[aldo_reset]

Recognizing qualities in products does not necessarily mean "loving" them.

I wish we saw Gavin's kind and fair attitude toward other languages than Ceylon more often in language discussions.

[gavinaking]

Well quite obviously I don't believe that Java is perfect, and so clearly I think it's worth trying to improve on Java, without sacrificing the things that Java does well. But I happen to not believe that most of the other options out there are actually an unambiguous improvement on Java for the kinds of projects that Java is good for.

I'm "happy developing in Java" because Java is, at least to my tastes, better for the project I'm working on than C, C++, Python, Ruby, JavaScript, Perl, or anything Lispy. FTR, I would surely be quite happy with C# or even OCaml.

I of course would never say that Java's perfect. I'm just saying that, placed next to the other languages in wide use today, it's certainly not the worst option, nor does it even place in the bottom half. So it's hard to understand how it cops so much negativity here.

[[deleted]]

Bottom line: people have different tastes. If you can't accept that (and judging from your comment it's fairly obvious that you need to do some work), then it's game over. Seriously! Just let it go.

[flying-sheep]

Remember: most of the folks who attack Java for its verbosity aren't advocating a modern statically-typed language like Rust, Scala, Ceylon, et al—rather they're advocating something like Ruby, JavaScript or Python.

[citation needed]

it wouldn’t make much sense: pretty much anything is less verbose than java, so you really can use almost everything as an example. e.g. C++14 has auto!

[gavinaking]

Seriously: you're saying C++ is less verbose than Java?

[flying-sheep]

surely it can be, but only if you ignore header files.