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Creating the Go Programming Language [audio]

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131–135 of 135 posts

Re: Creating the Go Programming Language [audio]

#131

I write primarily in Go, I have to admit that I can't stand the name of it. When doing a search I constantly have to write "go golang" in my searches to get relevant results. It's too generically named, like naming something "The"

One of my favorite bands from the 80s was named "The The".

Re: Creating the Go Programming Language [audio]

#132
post #125

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The usual Go answer, Java boilerplate bad, Go's boilerplate good. Java was once like Go, and ironically DisVM also had support for Java, back in those days.

Usually your responses are well-reasoned and interesting; this one was disappointingly lazy. I didn’t say Java’s boilerplate was bad nor that Go’s was good. I criticized Go’s boilerplate and Java’s complexity.

Which Java only got by starting out just like Go, being a simple language against the establishment, catering for easy to hire resources, ignoring the likes of Delphi, Modula-3, Sather and Eiffel, while building up on C++'s familiarity.

And adding half baked features to keep relevant while avoiding a Python 3, which any language that wants to survive in the market has to do, as not everyone can afford to alienate their user base.

If anything, Java complexity is the Ghost of Christmas yet to come of Go's future.

Re: Creating the Go Programming Language [audio]

#133
post #132

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Usually your responses are well-reasoned and interesting; this one was disappointingly lazy. I didn’t say Java’s boilerplate was bad nor that Go’s was good. I criticized Go’s boilerplate and Java’s complexity.

Which Java only got by starting out just like Go, being a simple language against the establishment, catering for easy to hire resources, ignoring the likes of Delphi, Modula-3, Sather and Eiffel, while building up on C++'s familiarity. And adding half baked features to keep relevant while avoiding a Python 3, which any language that wants to survive in the market has to do, as not everyone can afford to alienate the…

I think the important distinction is that Go holds simplicity as a virtue, while Java’s position was “please give us time to add all of the features you are requesting!”. How long was it before Java shipped exceptions and inheritance? If that isn’t a commitment to incidental complexity, what is?

By the way, it’s fine that Java takes a different philosophy on simplicity; Go’s trade offs won’t suit every use case. But I think Go’s tradeoffs are better for more use cases by a pretty wide margin.

Re: Creating the Go Programming Language [audio]

#134
post #132

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Which Java only got by starting out just like Go, being a simple language against the establishment, catering for easy to hire resources, ignoring the likes of Delphi, Modula-3, Sather and Eiffel, while building up on C++'s familiarity. And adding half baked features to keep relevant while avoiding a Python 3, which any language that wants to survive in the market has to do, as not everyone can afford to alienate the…

I think the important distinction is that Go holds simplicity as a virtue, while Java’s position was “please give us time to add all of the features you are requesting!”. How long was it before Java shipped exceptions and inheritance? If that isn’t a commitment to incidental complexity, what is? By the way, it’s fine that Java takes a different philosophy on simplicity; Go’s trade offs won’t suit every use case. But…

Java had exceptions and inheritance right from the start.

If Go's wants to stay relevant it will eventually grow such features, no matter what.

Even C now has such niceties like _Bool and _Complex, because adding them was not considered relevant, let alone the bags of money that have been spent trying to retrofit security solutions while keeping backwards compatibility with the "C Spirit".

Oh and even if it is quite limited, modern C also has _Generic.

Re: Creating the Go Programming Language [audio]

#135
post #134

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I think the important distinction is that Go holds simplicity as a virtue, while Java’s position was “please give us time to add all of the features you are requesting!”. How long was it before Java shipped exceptions and inheritance? If that isn’t a commitment to incidental complexity, what is? By the way, it’s fine that Java takes a different philosophy on simplicity; Go’s trade offs won’t suit every use case. But…

Java had exceptions and inheritance right from the start. If Go's wants to stay relevant it will eventually grow such features, no matter what. Even C now has such niceties like _Bool and _Complex, because adding them was not considered relevant, let alone the bags of money that have been spent trying to retrofit security solutions while keeping backwards compatibility with the "C Spirit". Oh and even if it is quite…

That’s the crux of the issue. Go aims to be useful, not relevant. Obviously some relevance is necessary for utility (a language isn’t useful if there is no community around it), but when you optimize for relevance directly, you end up with solutions in search of problems. Like inheritance.
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