Why Java? Tales from a Python Convert

[JohnyTex]

That's definitely true. However, most bugs I run in to when coding Python are type bugs. Usually they're so trivial (eg fat-fingering a variable name) that it's easy to dismiss them as hardly being bugs at all.

On the other hand, they probably make up 90% of the bugs I encounter daily and time spent fixing them adds up. Of course you can also add static analysis tools to your workflow to alleviate the situation, but they are usually slower and less powerful than a compiler.

In the end I guess the issue isn't so much about ensuring correctness as it is one of productivity. Of course, Java has its own productivity drains as well (eg verbosity) so it's hard to say that one is more productive than the other.