The functional programming elements in Java 8 (<4 years old) do make it a new language. I've been keeping up with Java since V1.4, and I felt like Java 5 was the update that made Java a modern language, but Java 8 brought a paradigm shift (if you felt like changing your style).

And in any way, the title is misleading. It should have been "Kotlin: here is why we think it's better than Java 5" - because that's the actual content of the article.

I like learning about new languages, but I wish the article had more. For instance, it doesn't mention functional programming paradigms (the new thing in Java 8), even though Kotlin does have them, e.g.[1]. That's one way to improve the article beyond the title.

[1] https://medium.freecodecamp.org/my-favorite-examples-of-func...

Instead, this article just answers its question with one word: Kotlin.

I get it; Kotlin is easier to write in than Java. But the article should list why it's better than Scala or Clojure, if we're restricting ourselves to JVM languages. (And why should we?)

There's 48 languages more common than Kotlin, according to https://www.tiobe.com/tiobe-index/ . Why is it better than all of them?

There are good reasons to move into something like Kotlin but the author has barely touched on any of them. "Java is old" also makes the author sound like they ditch programming languages that aren't currently trending on Twitter or something.

I don't care to see any posts ever again from this author.

Java might be old, but it's still a long way from dead. And actually it could be argued that it's done a fantastic job keeping up with the demands of modern development. Kotlin and Scala are great, but there's still tons of need for and value in Java itself.

The JDK libraries has also grown. You could probably spend a week just learning about java.util.concurrent.* and how to write efficient multithreaded code.