A three year lag? This should be fun.

My opinion hasn't really changed, even though I now know a bit more about Java. If you were thinking I was getting partisan about Java - don't. I don't like it much, mainly for the reasons eduardo gave.

But that Java code can be rewritten to look a lot like the Perl code eduardo put up. Use some iterators, a wrapper for the regexes. We aren't exactly a community of people who can write good Java.

The example code that gets released with libraries is usually childlike so everyone can understand it.

The statement I made was loaded to show that Java isn't all bad. In your example, you've picked Perl's best applications area - CGI. CGI.pm existed before Java did, and has been baked well. Possibly you should compare CGI.pm to Tomcat and the like - the comparison might be a little closer.

I don't see that there's anything in Java (or Python, etc) which prevents someone from writing modules that rival Perl's. I do see that the Java community is dedicated to a mediocre level of programming that the perl programmers around here couldn't lower themselves to, if they tried.

I suspect that some of the smarter Java guys where I work could cram that example into a few lines - but they're not the kind of people who release their work, and that ultimately is where we really win.