I think that a consensus was built in the mid-90s that Java was a pain in the ass and not an improvement over what was available in that particular field at the time (not as easy as other higher-level languages and not as good or fast as C or C++).
I have a feeling that people over time consolidated that consensus through some form of confirmation bias even though the Java/JVM ecosystem had made strides towards a brighter future. And I say that as someone that doesn't even like Java in the first place (or at least doesn't see himself enjoying coding with it).
But it's hard in 2013 to look at what Java and the JVM brought to the table with disdain.
Java is nowadays a very fast language that deals with memory management extremely well (not a good feature in some fields of course, embedded or real-time systems come to mind), that offers a rather sane Java-flavoured OOP paradigm, tons of tools (from IDEs to debuggers to servers) and an extremely well-crafted documentation.
The JVM also enabled Scala, Clojure, JRuby, Rhino, Vert.x, etc.
Now I totally understand and agree that the picture of Java nowadays is still far from perfect but I was more pointing at the slight disconnect between the actual capacities of the language and its perception by the programming world at large. Overall Java and the JVM are pretty damn good tools to use and meet the needs of lots of different niches.
It's not the JVM or the ecosystem, but the language itself. It is clunky and generally irritating to write and read. But the libraries and its niche sophistication (basically enterprise middleware and webapps) are second to none, so people put up with it.
Note: I've been writing it professionally since 1999, currently working a lot with ServiceMix so I'm knee-deep in the enterprise stuff.
I think that a consensus was built in the mid-90s that Java was a pain in the ass and not an improvement over what was available in that particular field at the time (not as easy as other higher-level languages and not as good or fast as C or C++).
I have a feeling that people over time consolidated that consensus through some form of confirmation bias even though the Java/JVM ecosystem had made strides towards a brighter future. And I say that as someone that doesn't even like Java in the first place (or at least doesn't see himself enjoying coding with it).
But it's hard in 2013 to look at what Java and the JVM brought to the table with disdain. Java is nowadays a very fast language that deals with memory management extremely well (not a good feature in some fields of course, embedded or real-time systems come to mind), that offers a rather sane Java-flavoured OOP paradigm, tons of tools (from IDEs to debuggers to servers) and an extremely well-crafted documentation.
The JVM also enabled Scala, Clojure, JRuby, Rhino, Vert.x, etc.
Now I totally understand and agree that the picture of Java nowadays is still far from perfect but I was more pointing at the slight disconnect between the actual capacities of the language and its perception by the programming world at large. Overall Java and the JVM are pretty damn good tools to use and meet the needs of lots of different niches.