[Kolja]

This seems to be a weird micro-optimisation. While I agree with some of the goals (classless files, parameterless main exist in Kotlin and are nice to have), they should, in my opinion, not be implemented for the sole purpose of making `main` as minimal as possible.

I don't think you need to understand every single character of your very first program right from the beginning. A few of the concepts can be hand waved away to be explained in a later chapter without impeding the overall understanding of programs once you left the sub-twenty-lines beginner programs.

[chrisseaton]

Extra language specification rules that you need to be aware of for your whole career... in order to make the first 30 seconds easier when looking at hello-world for the first time.

[kaba0]

The genius of this proposal is that besides the implicit unnamed class, the other changes are all purely done to the program launcher program, no changes are proposed for the language at all.

And one could argue that quickly writing up some program happens often regardless of skillset (I do make at least two psvm Main classes per month), so the code reduction there is also a welcome change.

[pjmlp]

As I mention on the sibbling comment, C# 10 already went through this.

For me it seems like a reaction to JavaScripts and Pythons of this world, optimizing for Hello World just to win over them on those 30 seconds.

They are going to rewrite their applications anyway, when performance comes knocking on the door.

[pjmlp]

C# just went through this for C# 10, which I find a waste of resources, optmizing for "Hello World" is not what matters in large scale engineering.

[whizzter]

Large scale engineering is totally beside the point for this. This is about optimizing for teaching a first language (since many will stick with that).

Read the article, the "static trap" is a real thing for new students (on top of all other ceremony). To solve the issue of main being non-static some students will start to put static everywhere as a 'fix' to their initial issue, a day or two later they'll be asking why every student gets the same name (because they have one static variable to keep the student or name objects).

The verbosity of Java also introduces another more serious problem for learning, not only do the students have problems compiling, they also start putting their mind on focusing on syntax instead of logic once they're past the first few problems. The issue of de-programming students from this affliction is waaay too common to be ignored.

[pron]

It's not optimising for Hello World. It's optimising for a new student's learning experience, so that concepts can be introduced in a more reasonable order.