I find the Java love/hate intriguing, I personally like the ideal of 'getting the job done'. Pre Java 8 is just fine, I don't think it's materially changed, I

I find the Java love/hate intriguing, I personally like the ideal of 'getting the job done'. Pre Java 8 is just fine, I don't think it's materially changed, I think what has changed is perception i.e. the realization that all that Enterprisy cruft 'does not equal' Java - nor do wee need FactoryFactor patterns. My wishlist: - Stream syntax was nice, but a little clumsy - In addition to data objects, some kind of 'un-typed' object (better than a Map) for dealing with json-ish type data, right in the syntax. - First class functions instead of lambdas - Async notation as a better way to express threads, or even combining within the same thread - Union types For compilation, you should check out Graalvm, which has some neat new features there.