I just wish java would add null safety in the type system in a first citizen way.
For enterprise use java has no competitors. You have c# which is microsoft trying to estabilish nash equilibrium fu*ing the developers. I am a bit worried about ever increasing complexity and a steep learning curve, but seems like this is a problem on all fronts.
Async/await also splits the standard library and the ecosystem in 2 (blocking vs non-blocking, or blue vs red), and it can't automatically update the behavior of old code.
The introduction of virtual threads in Java also works well with "structured concurrency", as seen with Kotlin's Coroutines. Kotlin's approach to concurrency is also superior to that of C#, actually. But what's interesting about Java is that its evolution is often one that involves runtime changes, lifting all boats. Java engineers preferred pushing more changes in the runtime, and somewhat ironically, the JVM ended up being the true multi-language runtime.
Java is a good case study of how languages should evolve. It has extreme backwards compatibility, and features being pushed are assessed for how they impact the whole ecosystem, including libraries or languages not in Oracle's control. Project Loom was developed in the open, compared to what Microsoft usually does.
(if you want to take a look at good structured concurrency, you might be interested in Swift implementation)
Set<File> s = new HashSet<File>();
s.add( new File( "c:/temp" ) );
s.add( new File( "c:/temp" ) );
System.out.println( s.size() );
ISet<FileInfo> s = new HashSet<FileInfo>();
s.Add( new FileInfo( "c:/temp" ) );
s.Add( new FileInfo( "c:/temp" ) );
Console.WriteLine( s.Count );
string path = "/tmp/filename.txt";
FileInfo f = new FileInfo( path );
File.CreateText( path ).Dispose();
Assert.True( f.Exists );
f.Delete();
Assert.False( f.Exists );
Languages have their strengths and weaknesses.
Also, async-await is not a good thing — virtual threads are superior in every way in case of a managed language.
It appears every six months there must be new language features being added.
The last one, for declaring fixed size arrays in structs, with an annotation instead of proper grammar change is getting ridiculous.
type erasure for generics is annoying
Also, would your opinion of Java significantly change if type erasure was removed or never existed?
Adopting async isn't impossible at all, there is very little demand for it.
Many uncancellable threads + mutability + goroutine panic kill it all are serious issues for golang.
With valhalla (value types), it might just come!
Frankly, Id rather have a result and optional/nullable type like in rust/kotlin than deal with exceptions in any capacity.
The correct way to deal with Java’s checked exceptions would have been introducing a Result type, or, preferably, type algebra, like in TypeScript, so something like:
fun openFile(fileName: String): File | FileNotFoundException {…}
val content: String | FileNotFoundException = openFile(“myfile.txt”).?read()
…then you have to do a check before you use content as a String…
val content: String = openFile(“myfile.txt”)?.read() ?: “File not found”
In fact, null should be treated as an exceptional value the same way all exceptions should be.
I do not know about go ecosystem, but java and spring have mature solutions that cover the most advanced use cases.
But that's the thing with Java, yes there are libraries for everything and one could see that as a problem actually.
Spring was mentioned before, but it's the perfect example of an overengineered/ heavy library that does a lot of black magic.
With regard to this:
> But most enterprises that have a non-software focus generally prefer languages that have been around for a while and are known by lots of people.
I know developers who work for large blue chip financial sector and other traditional sectors. They’re on the same React/Vue/Webpack/whatever treadmill as all the frontend devs devs working at web dev agencies. And they’re often compiling it down from TypeScript, which has not been around for a very long while at all and is not known by lots of people (relative to the size of the JS community.
Swinging a bit of Go for a service in an environment like that isn’t really that hard.
You know that Go has generics since a couple of years now?