I've recently come around on Java (although I'll still rarely choose it), mostly due to the idea that "all things get complicated, so what matters is how you manage that complexity".
Java started to "click" when I realized how much you build objects out of other objects like layers of an onion, just adding a bit at each step, and it clicked a bunch more as I understood Spring's bean system, which itself clicked more when I began to understand that the object-based dependency graph is basically the equivalent of the top-level Ruby script. All the code describes how X and Y relate to eachother, and then you go to the bean definitions to find out what X and Y are. That's actually pretty neat.
I still prefer the "simple script" approach you can do in Ruby; and I'm loving the way Scala is kind of Ruby, but in Java, and so (and to relate to the actual content) inherits a lot more from Lisp.
So, PS, author, if you're reading this, seriously give Scala a try. It's been pretty fantastic so far for me!
Java started to "click" when I realized how much you build objects out of other objects like layers of an onion, just adding a bit at each step, and it clicked a bunch more as I understood Spring's bean system, which itself clicked more when I began to understand that the object-based dependency graph is basically the equivalent of the top-level Ruby script. All the code describes how X and Y relate to eachother, and then you go to the bean definitions to find out what X and Y are. That's actually pretty neat.
I still prefer the "simple script" approach you can do in Ruby; and I'm loving the way Scala is kind of Ruby, but in Java, and so (and to relate to the actual content) inherits a lot more from Lisp.
So, PS, author, if you're reading this, seriously give Scala a try. It's been pretty fantastic so far for me!