Will it do?
I used to think so.
Now I don't think it will.
People who have been brought up in that environment have walls in their heads that prevent them from seeking maximum simplicity. I don't know how else to put it but there are several interesting programming concepts that have been more or less (usually less) "ported" to java - but if you started with Java you'd never get there. As an example, look at every "architecture" thats been created in the Java world. They are mostly shit. J2EE? Give me a break. Its insanely complex. RMI? Code generation of stubs? Crap and bloatware. Swing? Why is it so slow and why does it throw exceptions
Java is a mule - useful but sterile. Nothing to advance the art on.
I love to code - but not in Java anymore (or C++).
I think that it's extraordinarily important that we in computer science keep fun in computing. When it started out, it was an awful lot of fun. Of course, the paying customer got shafted every now and then, and after a while we began to take their complaints seriously. We began to feel as if we really were responsible for the successful, error-free perfect use of these machines. I don't think we are. I think we're responsible for stretching them, setting them off in new directions, and keeping fun in the house. I hope the field of computer science never loses its sense of fun. Above all, I hope we don't become missionaries. Don't feel as if you're Bible salesmen. The world has too many of those already. What you know about computing other people will learn. Don't feel as if the key to successful computing is only in your hands. What's in your hands, I think and hope, is intelligence: the ability to see the machine as more than when you were first led up to it, that you can make it more.
--Alan Perlis
