Lack of multi-parameter polymorphism, lack of return-type polymorphism, lack of algebraic data types, lack of parametric polymorphism, etc.
Okay, essentially I want Java to be Haskell. That's an impossibility, but most of the type-level stuff needs no runtime support whatsoever.
You can do polymorphism with generic types, and that's been around for a while.
Like,
List listOfThings = new ArrayList(); listOfThings.add(new Thing()); Thing t = listOfThings.get(0);
Is this not what you're talking about? Generics need no runtime support, but they do enable a lot of compile-time checks.
Generics certainly don't do parametric polymorphism or algebraic data types. Of course anyone can write a Pair or Triple class with trivial get and set methods, but that looks (and acts) silly.
Ooh, another thing I'd love is to have there be a Bracketable inte...
Lots of people (particularly people associated with LessWrong) are telling me I should become a computer programmer; in response I've taught myself a little Python using this site, written a couple Python scripts on my own, and just now sent in an application to App Academy. But if I don't end up going to App Academy, what's the best way to develop some actually marketable programming skills? I've heard people recommending getting involved in open source projects on Git Hub, but when I looked at Git Hub I found it overwhelming, with no idea of how to find a suitable project to work on. Advice?