"but I just hope that it doesn't continue to have undue influence on the evolution of programming language and methodologies simply because it is a revered institution."
I would tweak that to "... programming language and methodologies accepted by the mainstream...". Java is already not stopping many very different streams of development from existing at all, but the question is whether anything that isn't Algol-derived can be the next big mainstream language. That syntax is really starting to creak under the load of all the stuff that even C# loads onto it, and the Next Big Enterprise Language really needs to not be that way. (I make no claims as to what it should actually be, though.)
Good point. I don't have a good idea either what the Next Big Enterprise Language should be, but I'll bet that it will not be what it should be. I think an "Enterprise Language" is bound to be disappointing because it's a solution to an ugly problem: "How do we make developers interchangeable?"
I guess the rest of us will just continue along doing what we do with whatever tool we need for the job.
I would tweak that to "... programming language and methodologies accepted by the mainstream...". Java is already not stopping many very different streams of development from existing at all, but the question is whether anything that isn't Algol-derived can be the next big mainstream language. That syntax is really starting to creak under the load of all the stuff that even C# loads onto it, and the Next Big Enterprise Language really needs to not be that way. (I make no claims as to what it should actually be, though.)