[buckbova]

> Of course, compared to C#, it still benefits from a considerably larger and IMHO higher-quality ecosystem . . .

Maybe so, it's been over a decade since I've coded in Java back in the days of java servlets.

But what MS has done with C# is great. It's turned out to be an awesome language with lambda, linq, async features that's really hard to beat.

edit: Looks like java 8 has lambda now.

http://www.oracle.com/webfolder/technetwork/tutorials/obe/ja...

[eropple]

C# the language is fine, but C# the ecosystem is kind of a mess. There are multiple approaches that attempt to solve the same problem (PCLs versus shared libraries; both have their place but they overlap uncomfortably) and cross-platform development is an abject disaster (CoreCLR may eventually get to a good place but I wouldn't use Mono in production for long-running services). NuGet--itself a problem in many ways, it's very poor the second you get off the happy path--exists but in my experience its usage is spotty, whereas even the jankiest Ant projects I've ever worked with at least used Ivy. Libraries in NuGet are also, I think, a lot more hit-or-miss than I'm used to either in Ruby or on the JVM. Some stuff is real good (JSON.NET!). Some stuff is real, real bad (the bajillion competing and differently defective YAML tools), and there isn't the same sort of cultural focus on pushing the good to the forefront.

This isn't a strong defense of Java, because I think the JVM and its ecosystem isn't super great either. I really like C# and I pay for ReSharper despite not doing C# professionally (I've been using it for about a decade but never taken a job in it). But while C#-the-language has greatly improved, the ecosystem still feels five-plus years behind.