Everything in Java is a compromise. The leaders of Java will often admit that. Josh Bloch openly talks about Java being a working man's language, a blue collar

Everything in Java is a compromise. The leaders of Java will often admit that. Josh Bloch openly talks about Java being a working man's language, a blue collar one. Every idea has to be tampered down to make it fit for Java's purpose (Bloch has said that they blew Java's complexity budget on closures and wildcards). BGGA was the real proposal for adding closures to Java, but instead it went with CICE. Java works, and it's good enough to work in, and it's got enough jobs in it. But no one thinks it's the perfect language. There are no Java equivalents of C++ or Haskell die-hards.