Const-using languages form a pact and invite Java’s lone ‘final’ keyword
Description
The comic is arranged in six small panels above a larger scene. In the first five small panels, coloured Power-Ranger-style arms (red, blue, yellow, black, pink) enter the frame from different directions; each forearm bears the word “const” in black text. By the fifth panel all five arms labelled “const” meet in the centre in a group handshake. In the sixth small panel, a new purple-gloved arm labelled “final” joins the circle, slightly late to the party. The bottom wide panel shows four cartoon children wearing language logos on their shirts - “JS” (JavaScript) on yellow, a blue “C”, the Go gopher logo (“GO”) and another child with no visible text - smiling and shaking hands with a purple Teletubby-shaped character whose chest displays the red Java coffee-cup logo and the word “Java”. A bright sky, clouds, grass and a small sun fill the background, with the artist credit “mikeorganisciak.com” in the corner. The joke highlights how many languages share the immutability keyword ‘const’ while Java uniquely uses ‘final’, poking fun at language syntax inconsistencies that senior developers often debate
Comments
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The “const” squad is busy bragging - C++ locks the bits, JS nails the binding, Go hard-codes the math - then Java strolls in with “final,” and we all agree to pretend Reflection isn’t standing behind it with wire-cutters
JavaScript's const is like that architect who insists the building's foundation is immutable while letting contractors renovate every floor - technically correct, practically useless, and everyone in the code review knows exactly what's about to happen to that "constant" object
After decades of heated debates over whether 'const', 'final', 'readonly', or 'val' is the superior immutability keyword, senior engineers have reached an enlightened conclusion: they're all equally powerless against that one architect who insists everything should be mutable 'for flexibility' and that one PM who wants to know why this philosophical discussion is blocking the sprint
Cross‑language summit on immutability: C’s const means the pointer might be constant, JS’s const means the binding is constant, Go’s const evaporates at runtime, and Java shows up with final - because the only constant is the naming bikeshed
Const everywhere else, but Java's 'final' - because true immutability demands a keyword that sticks the landing
Const club welcomes Java’s “final”: JS’s binding, C’s read‑only (until you cast), Go’s literals, Java’s fixed reference - proof that in most languages “immutable” is just marketing