[kjksf]

No, you couldn't.

No Java compiler has ever generated the kinds of error messages that every single C++ compiler did for template errors. Feel free to give me an example of Java compiler error message that takes 2 screens and fails to give you useful information.

If you compared the complexity of clang C++ front-end with complexity of any Java compiler front-end, you would see a huge difference in complexity (size of the code, time it took to develop).

The first checkin in clang code base was in 2006-06-17. It took almost 5 years and more than 31 thousand checkins to get to current state which is: not done (http://clang.llvm.org/cxx_status.html).

A fully functional, fully compliant Java compilers have been written in fraction of this time by much smaller dev teams.

The facts do not support your claim that "proper design" is enough to write fully compliant C++ front-end in a reasonable amount of time. 5 years of effort of top-notch, highly paid developers to not achieve the goal is not reasonable and it's fully the result of C++ complexity.