[bitwize]

This is exactly what I've been calling the "public static void main problem" for years (and an illustration of why I thought something like BASIC or Python should be everyone's first programming language). Neat to see the Java team come up with a solution for it. But "public static void main" runs deeper, and has to do with immediacy: shortening the time between the programmer giving instructions to the computer and seeing the results of those instructions being executed. It makes the smallest possible Java program greatly simpler and absent unusual comments that beginning programmers might struggle with; but there's the issue of the compilation step as well! If they make Java REPL-driven they might well have a winner!

[craigacp]

Java has had the ability to run a single code file directly by running `java <path-to-file.java>` since Java 11 - https://openjdk.org/jeps/330. And it's had a Java REPL since Java 9.