TPL with java or some language other than Perl?

System

Maybe it's just me but I get pretty frustrated writing Perl - no named subroutine parameters and often no subroutine prototype checking, no strong types, no compile time error detection, poor object-orientation, cryptic code, poor auto-documentation facilities, poor IDEs, etc. This gets worse when you embed Perl in XML and vice-versa.

I heard that in 6.5.x there may be a Java API to build workflow job XML and in 7.x the Perl .wfts may no longer be supported.

First, does anyone know if this is true? It's the direction I've been going for the past year with both .NET and Java TeamSite implementations.

Second, will there be a way to embed or otherwise use Java in a presentation template instead of Perl, without an <iw_perl> block spawning a java virtual machine?