A language designer must make choices. 2 choices have been identified as "shortcomings" (in the sense of this thread). Empirical evidence suggests that they indeed picked a very productive sweet spot.
As an aside, the current disfavor of "crowds" for Java is all together too familiar to the past fervor of "crowds" for Java. You may wish to reflect on that.
"Empirical evidence suggests that they indeed picked a very productive sweet spot."
You seem to be arguing that popularity and quality are synonymous. I do not think that is a very useful way to evaluate programming languages.
Do you have actual data showing productivity gains for using Java over Scala or other languages that run on the JVM? How about Java and non-JVM languages? Even anecdotal evidence? You are advocating for empirical evidence, but are not providing much in this discussion that I can see.
"You seem to be arguing that popularity and quality are synonymous. I do not think that is a very useful way to evaluate programming languages."
No. And yes, of course. (Java is not exactly "popular" these days.)
"Do you have actual data showing productivity gains for using Java over Scala or other languages that run on the JVM?"
Do you have actual data from a study that shows such studies are worth their virtual ink? Cite it, please. Lets pretend we have an actual market economy in this country: How many businesses have shot themselves in the foot with Java? How many have bet the farm (IBM, Oracle, even Google has hedged on this tech) on Java? Are they all idiots who do not appreciate the grave "shortcomings" of Java and its impact on the "productivity" of their workers ants? Are you kidding me?
"You are advocating for empirical evidence, but are not providing much in this discussion that I can see."
One needs to point out the overwhelming presence of Java in OSS? Well, consider it pointed out. Pretty darn good showing for a language with such serious "shortcomings".
Anecdotal? Have been programming since 16. That was 30 years ago. Have done/seen enough to have a reasonably informed opinion regarding languages. Everyone of them has its set of issues. Java included. But it is actually one of the most productive languages I have worked with to date.
A language designer must make choices. 2 choices have been identified as "shortcomings" (in the sense of this thread). Empirical evidence suggests that they indeed picked a very productive sweet spot.
As an aside, the current disfavor of "crowds" for Java is all together too familiar to the past fervor of "crowds" for Java. You may wish to reflect on that.