consider this example - one using dynamic code with exception-based handling (ruby), and one using golang's more explicit error handling:
ruby:
begin
res = Net::HTTP.post_form(APIURL, ...)
puts res.body
rescue e => e
# do error handling
end
go:
response, err := http.PostForm(APIURL, url.Values{...})
if err != nil {
# handle PostForm error
}
defer response.Body.Close()
body, err := ioutil.ReadAll(response.Body)
if err != nil {
# handle ReadAll error
}
fmt.Printf("%s\n", string(body))
Now, for which errors do you handle? In golang, you can see clearly where errors may occur. In Ruby, it's unclear whether HTTP.post_form is even capable of throwing errors, much less what they are. For the record, here are a few of the many types of errors that can be thrown by the ruby code. Here are a few:
Timeout::Error, Errno::EINVAL, Errno::ECONNRESET, EOFError, Net::HTTPBadResponse, Net::HTTPHeaderSyntaxError, Net::ProtocolError, ...
there's no way to tell _where_ the error will even come from - you might get a Net:: error, you might get a Timeout:: error, hell you could even get an Errno::! What most programmers wind up doing is handling no errors at all until they occur in runtime - or wrapping every single "suspicious" statement in a catch-all begin/rescue block, even when it's not needed.
In golang, each function capable of returning an error simply returns it, and you must handle it at that point in time. It is very straightforward. In my experience, it results in much more reliable code. In Ruby, you have no idea what's coming. Do you see what I mean?