Half the point of CPAN is "installability", it is trivial to d/l and install lots of modules. There is also CPAN Testing which drastically helps portability. Can Java really compete with a Perl module that has a long list of dependencies (50+ is a pain but will work) and some code tying it together...? [That was the example in the GP post.]
With all due respect to the Java runtime (if not its memory use :-( ), it is part of a totally different ecosystem compared to the usual suspects of the scripting languages.
(And I'd argue that it is always easier to debug a scripting language than C/C++/Java, except maybe just for long running server processes.)
"Can Java really compete with a Perl module that has a long list of dependencies (50+ is a pain but will work) and some code tying it together...? "
Maven does it. I'm pretty sure that all main languages have their equivalents too.
With all due respect to the Java runtime (if not its memory use :-( ), it is part of a totally different ecosystem compared to the usual suspects of the scripting languages.
(And I'd argue that it is always easier to debug a scripting language than C/C++/Java, except maybe just for long running server processes.)