I used to feel Java was a pain to write when working with Java 6. Many 250 characters lines and everything.

Java 7 kinda divided the line length by a factor 2 with the diamond operator, the try-resource and so on.

I've programmed some Java 8 since yesterday and it actually feels like a pretty decent language to express ideas. Nothing like Java 6.

I know most of the Java haters have been struggling using it day to day in settings were it was awful (over engineering + Java 6, hello, here is the gun).

But I feel like those haters should really try to think fresh on this one. Try Java 8 and its new features and decide for yourself _afterwards_.