> I do agree that Java is a terrible first language to teach, it has so much arcane boilerplate to get through before doing anything useful. Especially the whol

> I do agree that Java is a terrible first language to teach, it has so much arcane boilerplate to get through before doing anything useful. Especially the whole "public static void main(String[] args)" incantation you're taught up-front. So many meaningless words for a beginner. The boilerplate is annoying, but it's an obstacle that can be overcome. My lecturer/lab tutor for introductory Java just gave us a pre-prepared: public class Main { } And told us to write all the code in between the two curly braces and don't worry about what's outside of them. The main method is another piece of boilerplate to ignore.