The problem with Java is mainly that people think they have to use all the horribly complex, intrusive, badly written, underperforming frameworks that exist in

The problem with Java is mainly that people think they have to use all the horribly complex, intrusive, badly written, underperforming frameworks that exist in the Java sphere. And then, of course, you will inevitably be screwed. Indeed. Back in 1998 I worked on a Java Web framework that was quite slick, easy to use, and relatively lightweight. It used URLs to map requests to classes and methods (e.g. /foo/bar/baz meant get a reference to an instance of class Foo and invoke bar("baz") ). It used convention over configuration for the common stuff (e.g. where to find classes and views) and was quite robust using a custom request proxy to handle the interaction with Apache. It was easy to add new behavior (while the app was running, even), easy to do internationalization and custom styling, and easy to deploy. When the company I was working for got bought the owners decided that they wanted some J2EE thing that could be maintained by a redundant array of mediocre Java hacks so they dumped the fast, efficient, and fun custom code and rebuild the app using beans and entities and war files and all that nonsense. I quit shortly thereafter. Since then I've seen countless people bemoan the state of Java Web development, but the truth is that much of the sorrow is self-induced. You don't have to build complex, complicated Java frameworks. And you don't have use only what others have put before you.