Public static void main(String[] args) is dead

I learned to read line as the following in Java 1.2 so the Scanner class is new to me. :p

  BufferedReader in = new BufferedReader(new InputStreamReader(System.in));
  String input = in.readLine();

It's amazing that ~30 years on, Java is finally becoming a not horrible programming language.

Why not abstract away the public static void main(String[] args) method with a top-level statement paradigm, similar to C#'s entry point simplification, to reduce boilerplate and enhance code conciseness?

JEP 445: Unnamed Classes and Instance Main Methods

Released in Java 21

https://openjdk.org/jeps/445

We got there just after we got the ability to legitimately create useful small programs without understanding any of the thousands of lines of code.

Why did it suck exactly?

Ugly? Sure. But isn't this the identity of Java? Taken away for almost no gain, there's literally no real issue stemming from requiring a verbose incantation to write a main routine, this is something you learn like day 1 on learning java, and it's something you write once in a blue moon, like 0.001% of the code you are going to write.

It reminds me of the attempt at removing Richard Stallman from the FSF, yeah, you could do that and fix a problem, but then what you are left with isn't really the same thing as it was before, it's now actually the same soulless thing as the rest of the competing things.

Saving grace is that obviously, you can still recite the incantation, it's not like public static void main(String[] args) is gone, just that you can skip it.

This is not a prank right ? Is it really gone ?

Might come back to Java

So, Java now supports free functions (not associated with some class). Or not really yet?