{"id":35,"date":"2007-12-10T16:13:08","date_gmt":"2007-12-10T15:13:08","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.bluej.org\/mrt\/?p=35"},"modified":"2020-05-15T15:46:27","modified_gmt":"2020-05-15T15:46:27","slug":"in-defense-of-java","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/blogs.kcl.ac.uk\/proged\/2007\/12\/10\/in-defense-of-java\/","title":{"rendered":"In Defense of Java"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"Java
\nRecently, I wrote a blog post titled “Can Java be saved from death by feature bloat?<\/a>“, that commented on some of the feature proposals for Java 7 (and some existing ones).<\/p>\n

This post generated many comments. Some of them are so stupid, that I feel compelled to respond.<\/p>\n

What I really want to get across with this is: I really like Java. It’s a great language, and most of the language zealots haven’t got a clue what they’re talking about.<\/p>\n


\nIn the last post, I was critical of some of Java’s features. This seem to have been interpreted by some as saying that Java is just bad. (Some of you didn’t interpret anything at all, and just took this as a chance to share your wisdom in succinct and witty statements such as “Java sucks”. The capacity for interpretation of argument there was obviously neither achieved nor required.)<\/p>\n

Some comments were made on my blog site, and these are largely thoughtful and interesting observations. The post was, however, also discussed on reddit<\/a>, and there some comments were… – how shall we put it? Let’s say, in terms of intellectual insight some of them were clearly flying under the radar. Some people don’t seem to have two brain cells to rub together.<\/p>\n

I was, to be honest, quite dismayed to see some of the mindless drivel that passes for comment on reddit, and to become, by association, linked to these diatribes.<\/p>\n

So, let’s get some things straight: The reason why I discuss (and criticise) Java, is because I care about Java. I like to write in that language, and I’d like to contribute to its evolution.<\/p>\n

Too many people who don’t understand language design, who – I suspect – often know only a single language well, think they need to tell the world what’s right. Java did, in fact, get many more things right than most other languages of its time. Let’s look at some of the common statements. According to some of these comments, Java is a “design failure” because<\/p>\n