i don't write much java these days but i've reviewed a fair amount of other folks' java code and i can confidently say that java does not force developers to learn OO principles. i still see entire applications that are just one class with a hundred methods, passing all the data as arguments. some people write C in every language.
i don't think that's necessarily a problem with java. the fact that you can escape the OO paradigm even just a little is probably a pro for java. just that if one is thinking of using java solely because they think it "forces developers to learn OO principles", they may want to re-consider.
anders pearson