The Next Big JVM Language

Stephen Colebourne has a very interesting article on the Next Big JVM Language (NBJL). The comments are good too. (I was going to add this as a comment to his blog, but it was rejected as spam. Maybe jroller is onto something...) Stephen defines the NBJL as a language that targets the JVM and is broadly adopted, i.e. the dominant language on the JVM. He argues that such a language must (a) fix the flaws in Java that are now obvious and (b) be useful and comprehensible to the "typical developer". In his opinion, this rules out Clojure (too Lispy), Groovy (too slow), Scala (too complex), and Fantom (type system too weak). He argues that the NBJL should be Java, or rather, a backwards-incompatible version of Java with the cruft removed and a relatively modest set of improvements. Which, at the speed things are moving, should be ready right around the year 2525. If man is still alive. Just kidding. I can see his point. But I don't think it's going to happen. The blog comments were mostly about Scala. It's too complex! It's not! It is too! Not! So, it seems as if Scala has become the NJL to beat, and the question is whether it can become the NBJL. A sweet spot of Java has been it's "blue collar" nature. A working programmer could understand all aspects of the language. Contrast this with the byzantine complexity of C++ whose users at some point simply must declare their faith in the library designers and hope f...

Date: September, 24 2010
Url: http://www.java.net/blog/cayhorstmann/archive/2010/09/24/next-big-jvm-language

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