> Java is maturing into a syntactically nice language, albeit slowly, and it's the backbone of many medium and large companies.

I've heard about Java initiatives to improve it, but can you point to examples of how how Java "is maturing into a syntactically nice language"?

I'm tempted to learn it, but wonder whether it would really become nice enough to become a 'go-to' language (over TS in my case)

I've always felt it was verbose and the need for classes for everything was a bit of a overkill in 90% of circumstances (we're even seeing a pushback against OOP these days).

Here are some actual improvements:

- Record classes

public record Point(int x, int y) { }

- Record patterns

record Person(String name, int age) { }

if (obj instanceof Person(String name, int age)) { System.out.println(name + " is " + age); }

- No longer needing to import base Java types - Automatic casting

if (obj instanceof String s) { // use s directly }

Don't get me wrong, I still find some aspects of the language frustrating:

- all pointers are nullable with support from annotation to lessen the pain

- the use of builder class functions (instead of named parameters like in other languages)

- having to define a type for everything (probably the best part of TS is inlining type declarations!)

But these are minor gripes

It has virtual threads, that under most circumstances let you get away from the async model. It has records, that are data-first immutable classes, that can be defined in a single line, with sane equals toString and hash. It has sealed classes as well, the latter two giving you product and sum types, with proper pattern matching.

Also, a very wide-reaching standard library, good enough type system, and possibly the most advanced runtime with very good tooling.

There are some interesting talks and slide decks that I have to search around to find. Here is one: https://speakerdeck.com/bazlur_rahman/breaking-java-stereoty...

Check jbang.dev, and then talks by its author Max Rydahl Andersen. That could be a starting point.

> I know the win version now works pretty well on linux with wine. But the process to set this up is not yet automated (like 20min) and is being worked on

Where did you get the information about it being worked on?

How is Ubuntu's GUI bloated (and unusable)?

Where did you get that information from? I've never used that functionality myself, but haven't seen info indicating it got deprecated so I assumed it's still supported?

Oxford Dictionary disagrees with Merriam-Webster:

https://en.oxforddictionaries.com/definition/octopus

This whole discussion is somewhat moot as a real biologist would almost always write "species of octopus", singular.

or, Latin 5th declension plural, also "species (plural) of octopus"

For Python use, what would be the case for using this over something like xlwings -- what are the main benefits over xlwings?

xlwings doesn't let you write Python code straight in the cells and have it immediately Just Work. It requires you to install a plugin and write commands in a separate file to execute Python. The UX difference is key here.

Also if you want shared sheets.

Will you be creating a mobile application for Livecoding.tv? It's not even usable at the moment on iPhone via Safari.

Also a suggestion: timestamps would be pretty useful in chat.

Hi - Yes we will definitely be creating a mobile app at some point. Thanks for your suggestion as well about timestamps, if you have any other suggestions you can add them to our Roadmap here: http://roadmap.livecoding.tv/

I'd be happy with an HTML5 video player for now. Is that planned as well? Actually, I think I even preferred that over an app.

Edit: Oh, there already is a request for that.

:)