[pron]

> Anyway, I'm not sure why you are so defensive. Yes, Java will ship with some kind of lambdas, but they will be inferior to pretty much anything out there in terms of usability, readability, maintainability, performance and will be a major pain point when evolving the language in the future. Why not just accept it and move on?

Because it's not true. I don't know if you've seen the lambda performance benchmarks but they're pretty darn good. I don't know what you mean by "usability" but some uses of lambdas in other languages are not a right fit for the Java philosophy. When it comes to maintainability, lambdas are great. Method handles don't enforce any particular implementation strategy, and the current language does not even preclude introducing function types in the future if it proves to be as big a pain point as you claim; OTOH, introducing function types now would have made it pretty much impossible to go back.

Now, let me be clear: I am not saying Java is the best language out there (I don't think such a thing exists). I am not even saying it's the best language for the specific goals it took upon itself. All I'm saying is that given its unbelievably huge adoption, backwards compatibility and philosophy, its maintainers are doing a pretty good job.