What features should Java 7 onwards have to encourage switching from C#? [closed]

Answer 1

I think it depends on bussiness decisions, not the languages themselves. But I really really really love C# lambdas and curry :D :D

http://mikeomatic.net/?p=82

Answer 2

in no particular order:

• function pointers (delegates); the whole passing interfaces around thing is stupid
• real generics; what's the point of having type safe generics if the compiler can't even hold the meta data through a unit's compilation?
• ui speed; all the self-drawing ui libraries are very slow compared to native controls wrapped in "managed" libraries, not to mention that microsoft's self-drawn ui is hardware accelerated through direct3d
• an yield return construct; c# is so user friendly in this it's crazy
• operator overloading
• linq; just cuz its so addicting
• properties; more synctatic sugar you get addicted to
• better interop with native code; c#'s p/invoke and native com support makes interop so easy compared to jni -.-
• first class value types; this goes hand in hand with real generics, having generic lists that never box/unbox in c# is part of why c# is faster than java.

and i'd say this is the most important one:

• a responsive, informative debugger; nothing can even come close to visual studio right now

Answer 3

Just going off the cuff, I think the biggest thing Java 7 needs that everyone is lamenting the lack of is closures.

Answer 4

I think, you should consider swithcing this holywar from "Java vs C#" to "JVM vs CLR", because JVM is (in the last years — mostly) not only Java, but also Scala, Groovy, Clojure, JRuby, Jython, and dozen of JVM-languages.

Answer 5

Support to run over CLR (and vice versa perhaps for JVM) without IKVM and other such layers.

Answer 6

Another one I would like is some equivalent to LINQ. I noticed how much I actually depend on the ability to use LINQ when I tried to do a top coder competition and realized they only support .NET 2.0. Once you get used to using LINQ to solve problem and make it part of your regular programming vocabulary it is very difficult to not see problems in that light. It is akin to using generics and then not being able to use generic.