Meh. Take pattern matching for example... that dates back at least to the SNOBOL[1] days. So you could say that every language that has first class patterns and

Meh. Take pattern matching for example... that dates back at least to the SNOBOL[1] days. So you could say that every language that has first class patterns and pattern matching is "stealing" from SNOBOL. Or probably SNOBOL "stole" the idea from some predecessor. My point is, "imitation is the sincerest form of flattery." Languages have been "borrowing" ideas from each other dating back to the beginning of programming languages. There's nothing particularly notable about Java continuing that tradition. [1]: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/SNOBOL https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/SNOBOL