On his blog, Erik Itland starts with a fairly specific concern — the lack of closures in Java, which puts it behind most of the other popular programming languages today — but quickly gets to a more basic problem, which is the lack of buzz around Java compared to other, “hipper” programming languages: And why is everyone still talking about Ruby, and not about Django, TurboGears, symfony? Here is what I guess: It’s because of the enthusiasm in the Ruby camp. They’re not very many, but they have a good language, they innovate, and they make a lot of noise! What Java lacks most is enthusiasm. Innovation can be copied (it’s mostly open source), and lack of language features can be programmed around, but not without enthusiasm, that is not going to happen. He goes on to detail reasons why you should get excited about Java again, but his point is well taken. Especially with Java becoming open source, enthusiasm is needed more than ever to advance it. Will current levels be enough? Software Development