James Gosling Unveils Java’s Crucial Role at AWS and His Functional‑Programming Secrets

James Gosling, the Canadian computer scientist known as the “father of Java,” designed the original Java language and built its first compiler and virtual machine.

Now an engineer at AWS, Gosling delivered the keynote at the online reClojure 2022 conference, sharing decades of industry experience that span programming‑language evolution to project failures.

He explained Java’s critical role at AWS, noting that many core services are implemented in Java and that AWS maintains a large Java engineering team, with the biggest subgroup dedicated to optimizing garbage‑collection performance.

Gosling praised Clojure’s emphasis on functional programming and revealed his own preference for recursion over arrays, a style his teammates once described as “crazy.”

Addressing why research often fails to become practical, he said engineers usually can’t articulate their work; early in Java’s history his wife urged him to explain Java’s benefits to business leaders, prompting him to draft dozens of use‑case scenarios that proved invaluable.

He also expressed confidence in the current stewardship of Java by Brian Getz and Oracle, stating he is very satisfied with their efforts.