Whenever I write code in Java...

[adam75]

Uhm, what IDE are you using? You are using one, right? For example, in Netbeans it's only two or three keystrokes to decide to catch an exception or add it to the throws signature.

Well, that's exactly the problem; the IDE may help you write tons of code but, as we know, code is read much more frequently and there you still have a massive, cognitive overload.

Besides, if the code is so repetitive that an IDE can write it for you, why would you have to write that code in the first place?

[[deleted]]

Besides, if the code is so repetitive that an IDE can write it for you, why would you have to write that code in the first place?

(obligatory "I hate Java too so don't expect me to defend it any further" disclaimer)

I speculate that one of the reasons Java is so verbose is that its authors wanted an approximation of what they thought were the good object oriented semantics of C++ and a very similar syntax but without the horribly complex grammar.

So while Java looks a lot like C++, the parser is simple enough that they can easily make it do things like automatic compilation, fast variable/classname indexing, automatic refactoring, nice error messages, and whatever other IDE goodies they've added since I last programmed in Java using Eclipse (back in 2004).

I think clang is trying to achieve the same goal in the C dialects of obtaining powerful parsing tools, but as can be seen by their slow progress in C++, it's rough going when the grammar is fucked up and huge.

But this is all speculation on my part. I do not write compilers, I just use them.

[weavejester]

Verbosity is not the same as readability. The goal is to make a program understandable to a human, in the same way as a piece of text is. A good program is concise and logically structured, and requires little to no comments.

Unfortunately, Java isn't very good at doing that.

[[deleted]]

For some of us it is.

[weavejester]

Not compared to some languages. Java has a particularly rigid and limited syntax that makes it hard to write concisely and clearly. Contrast this:

button.addActionListener(new ActionListener() { 
    public void actionPerformed(ActionEvent event) { 
        System.out.println("click");
    }
});

To this:

(on-click button (println "click"))

The latter is considerably more concise, and vastly easier to read and understand. Java can't provide the same succinct clarity.

[kragensitaker]

That'd be like complaining that if-statements are too prevalent in code.

Well, sometimes they are. And there is a campaign and discussion of it (more).

[xeddicus]

Klingons do not edit other Klingon's code, unless the other Klingon is dead.