[knieveltech]

Java (being rife with academic shitheadery itself) may not have been the best choice if you're trying to suggest the author doesn't have a point.

[yummyfajitas]

I picked Java because a) I know where to find it, b) the author mentions Java positively and c) the C++ standard costs $18.

Any formal language spec will look ugly and hard to read. That's just the nature of formal specs.

[sprout]

R5RS is a pretty light read.