[mcasaje]

I feel that the blog is more about demonstrating against the fact that Java is too complex as a beginner language, not on how Java is the simplest, quickest, or even easiest, because of course it's not. All these comments make valid points, but as a person who has learnt Java as his first language feel that it opened me up to learning other languages quicker because of that fact that I found languages like Python much simpler, whilst I find many 1st-language Python students to be much more defensive and 'clingy' to Python because of its simplicity and directness.

While Python may be an easier language, I find that it is more difficult to debug than Java at times due to incompatible spacing alone, but that's beside the point.

I think that students should be able to decide their first language. I was 'stuck' with Java, but I don't regret it at all. In fact, after having transferred to another university with students having started with Python, I find that I'm ahead in terms of concepts dealing with OOP. I know that Python can do this as well, but Java (for better or for worse) shoves it down your throat.

So can't we all just get along? :)