Not to mention that the type system in Java is always surprising. List<Integer> is not a List<Number> but Integer[] is a Number[] (which can throw ArrayStoreExc

Not to mention that the type system in Java is always surprising. List<Integer> is not a List<Number> but Integer[] is a Number[] (which can throw ArrayStoreException as covariance makes no sense on mutable collections - ref: http://programming-scala.labs.oreilly.com/ch12.html http://programming-scala.labs.oreilly.com/ch12.html ) And compare smalltalks' (and ruby's and python's) everything is an object to Java's: there are some primtive things, and null is not an object. Don't get me wrong: java is very taughtable to beginners. The basic usage is ok, while cumbersome. But Java shows its deep issues when you start using it for more serious stuff.