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Comment by chadcf | Hacker News Reader

Heh, and I use Ruby a lot and find Python's syntax troublesome :) I do like the idea that we can all unite behind hatred of Java however. Although Groovy at least is a step up and would be my choice if I ever had to program Java under threat of death or dismemberment.

Also I'd highly recommend the movie Python from 2000, starring none other than Wil Wheaton trying to defend the small town of Ruby from an attack by a giant Python.

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Last time I tried Groovy I found that the speed of it is really the pain of using it. It was considerably slower than plain Java.

I'd recommend Scala even if you skip all the functional parts of it (Clojure's too un-java to speak as an alternative.)

You kidding? Clojure is nice precisely because it's an un-Java as it can possibly be.

Exactly. If one want a Java-but-less-painful, Clojure ain't it.

"Java-but-less-painful" makes every bit as much sense as "gently gouging out an eye" ;-)

Groovy++ is working on improving the performance: http://code.google.com/p/groovypptest/

Sheesh. Listen, I'm a rubyist as much as anyone and have a number of commercial ruby/rails projects under my belt, but I've also done Java for more than a decade. This willingness by rubyists to piss on Java is quite silly. Java as a language can be frustrating at times, but it's really not that bad and the platform itself is solid. I manage a number of applications in Java which would be an absolute nightmare to write in ruby, simply because of their complexity and size. In large systems, Java excels.

Why not just use JRuby over Groovy?

I'd use Jython or Clojure (or JRuby). Or start considering an afterlife or prosthetics.

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