[valenterry]

> Map<String,Object>, Object, a few other things you may need are standard Java, so not sure how this is 'jumping through hoops'

When you put various things into this map and then later get them out and want to work with them, you will have to cast them to be able to do anything useful with them.

> the point is you CAN write shitty JS-style code if you want, how is that an argument for why JS is somehow better than Java

For the sake of our discussion: I have never said that JS were somehow better than Java. I much prefer statical type systems and would always pick Java over JS for a personal non-browser projects. But that's not the point of this discussion, so I'm playing "devil's advocate" here. It's important to understand and accept the shortcomings of statical type-systems - that's what I try to explain here.

> What doesn't make sense is saying that Java's type system makes it a worse language than JS or Python

You need to re-read what I (and the others in this subtread) have written. It is completely valid to criticize one part of language X compared to language Y without implying that this language X is worse than another language Y overall.

> [Java Either implementation]

> Yes, it's longer and slightly more complicated

And not only that, it is also not equivalent to the F# / Java examples. Or if it tries to be equivalent, it is buggy.

E.g.:

    Either.left(null)

Now I have an Either that is neither left nor right. Compared to the Scala example (because Scala also has to deal with the existence of null):

    Left(null)

This will create an instance of the type Left which contains a null-value. As I said, if I add a `.fold` method, then it will fold over the null. E.g.:

    Left(null).fold(left => "Left value is " + left, right => "Right value is" + right) 

This would return the String "Left value is null". You can't do this with your example implementation in Java, because the information is lost.

It is _not_ trivial to do that in Java, even when relying on already similar functionality like the built-in Optional type.

[NOGDP]

> When you put various things into this map and then later get them out and want to work with them, you will have to cast them to be able to do anything useful with them.

Considering this is entire hypothetical is a edge case, that's a minor inconvenience.

> But that's not the point of this discussion, so I'm playing "devil's advocate" here. It's important to understand and accept the shortcomings of statical type-systems - that's what I try to explain here.

That is the point of the discussion, the original claim I was objecting to was:

'This is a massive expressive hole which (along with lacking type inference) I believe is responsible for a lot of the hate towards statically typed languages.'

You're pointing out weaknesses in a subset of statically typed languages, and these are only weaknesses when compared to better type systems - not when compared to dynamically typed languages. I never claimed that Java had a perfect type system - I prefer Haskell and Rust.

> You need to re-read what I (and the others in this subtread) have written. It is completely valid to criticize one part of language X compared to language Y without implying that this language X is worse than another language Y overall.

It's not valid when you're using Rust or Haskell to show weaknesses in Java relative to JS. The original context was Java/C#/C++ vs Python/JS.

> Now I have an Either that is neither left nor right.

You're right. Here's a simple example without this problem:

  class Either<L,R>
    {
        public static <L,R> Either<L,R> left(L value) {
            return new Either<>(value, null, true);
        }

        public static <L,R> Either<L,R> right(R value) {
            return new Either<>(null, value, false);
        }

        private final L left;
        private final R right;
        private final boolean isLeft;

        private Either(L l, R r, boolean isLeft) {
          left = l;
          right = r;
          isLeft = isLeft;
        }
    } 

> It is _not_ trivial to do that in Java, even when relying on already similar functionality like the built-in Optional type.

It is trivial, it's just more awkward and lengthy but not complex at all - also no Optional. Plus there are stable libraries providing types like Either<A,B>, and other functional language features. Anyway, I'm not here to defend Java type system against Haskell, my point is that Java type system is a huge feature when compared to JS or Python.

[valenterry]

> Considering this is entire hypothetical is a edge case, that's a minor inconvenience.

I believe this is not an edgecase. I have to deal with that almost everyday and I'm working with a language that has a much more advanced typesystem than Java. But I guess there is no hard data for that, so everyone can believe what they what. :)

> You're right. Here's a simple example without this problem:

If it's so trivial, then why do you even have to fix something in your first approach. Also, you second approach still has flaws and is not equivalent. Maybe you want to figure it out yourself this time? :)

Anyways, I guess we are talking different points. Have a nice day!