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Until recently Java always seemed conservative. That's not "fun" or very interesting for a programmer, but it does offer some certainty. Java 8 bucked the trend with some major but highly useful additions, and ever since it seems like it has been going down the C++ path of accreting everything under the sun.

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Java has always been conservative about maintaining backwards compatibility and introducing new keywords, but the java.* and javax.* packages have been growing larger and larger since day one.

I do think Go and Kotlin have kicked the Java community into high gear, though. A lot of the recent (or upcoming) features are direct answers to features found in those languages.

A bigger standard library is one thing, but new classes and methods are easier to get accustomed to than additions to the core language spec with features like type inference or pattern matching.

I think Kotlin especially is responsible for this change. All that effort almost feels pointless now that Java has kinda stolen its USP.

> accreting everything under the sun

Maybe you're thinking about Scala? What I see is that Java is conservatively incorporating the established, proven good parts of other languages. The changes have been great - if perhaps a bit late, but that's by design.

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