Is this true, or is it something you want to be true. I would say its a disservice to the language which in many ways was better than its peers and has since been imitated a lot (VMs, Javadoc, Parts of the platform library).
The tools in terms of breadth and quality available for java (IDEs, testing, decompiling, AOP ... etc.) are years ahead of most other platforms. (Excluding C#, what else...?).
A large part of this is due to the simplicity of the language (and the stability). Is java worse if you are developping in Vim, no doubt, but this is a strawman. With the tools vs. python|ruby|lisp is a different proposition entirely.
Java appealed to the industrial users: a controlled language specified down to the instruction level, no complicated features, absolute stability on all levels. The SUN Java courses were just that: the programmer has to learn the language constructs and the library. Then the programmer learns some patterns to use the language effectively
Lisp is the antithesis to this: it is a language laboratory - the programmable programming language. The programmer needs to develop skills to understand when and how to change the language. Changing and extending the language is a core mechanism. This makes the language unstable and puts a lot of linguistic power into the programmer. With Lisp you need to trust the programmer and the programmer has to learn how to justify the trust (by learning to effectively use macros, by learning when and when not to use EVAL, ...).
The Lisp programmer has to learn how to program languages and the concepts he may want to use for that.
I don't really disagree, though it is a bit of a simplification. There is a lot to this argument, but without going into details (another time maybe) is it not a testament to the base of the language that they've managed to build so much crap on top of it??.
I don't mean to say Java is all-bad. McDonald's is an extremely innovative company as well - they've put a lot of effort into optimizing the process of food production.
A large part of this is due to the simplicity of the language
I was with you until that part - maybe the abstraction Java programmers deal with, sure. But the question "what is my computer doing?" when you run a Java program is well beyond the vast majority of Java developers, partially because it's so complicated. This is a Very Bad Thing.
Is this true, or is it something you want to be true. I would say its a disservice to the language which in many ways was better than its peers and has since been imitated a lot (VMs, Javadoc, Parts of the platform library).
The tools in terms of breadth and quality available for java (IDEs, testing, decompiling, AOP ... etc.) are years ahead of most other platforms. (Excluding C#, what else...?).
A large part of this is due to the simplicity of the language (and the stability). Is java worse if you are developping in Vim, no doubt, but this is a strawman. With the tools vs. python|ruby|lisp is a different proposition entirely.