V Language Review (2023)

#1

Post by thunderbong » Sat, Feb 24, 2024, 4:18 PM UTC

V Language Review (2023)
n-skvortsov-1997.github.io

Re: V Language Review (2023)

#2

Post by Alifatisk » Sat, Feb 24, 2024, 5:44 PM UTC

I remember there was some controversy or drama with V a couple of years ago regarding the language.

I forgot what it was about but I haven’t heard about V since then. This article was interesting to read!

Re: V Language Review (2023)

#3

Post by jug » Sat, Feb 24, 2024, 5:45 PM UTC

Strangely super vigorous rant about a language that fell into obscurity early on.

Re: V Language Review (2023)

#4

Post by mratsim » Sat, Feb 24, 2024, 5:50 PM UTC

Alifatisk wrote: post #2

I remember there was some controversy or drama with V a couple of years ago regarding the language. I forgot what it was about but I haven’t heard about V since then. This article was interesting to read!

Overpromise and underdeliver.

And lots of funding for then vaporware

Re: V Language Review (2023)

#5

Post by ck45 » Sat, Feb 24, 2024, 5:51 PM UTC

Alifatisk wrote: post #2

I remember there was some controversy or drama with V a couple of years ago regarding the language. I forgot what it was about but I haven’t heard about V since then. This article was interesting to read!

Isn't it about the authors have been overpromising and underdelivering since the beginning? https://mawfig.github.io/2022/06/18/v-lang-in-2022.html is a year older than this article, still interesting and it links to some other articles right at the beginning.

Re: V Language Review (2023)

#6

Post by archsurface » Sat, Feb 24, 2024, 5:51 PM UTC

"a summary of my experience with the language over 6 months " -- I was only able to use it for a week around Christmas before hitting compiler bugs. I like the look of it, but I can't currently use it.

Re: V Language Review (2023)

#7

Post by chrisaycock » Sat, Feb 24, 2024, 5:55 PM UTC

Some highlights:

  - autofree doesn't work
  - memory arenas (prealloc) isn't thread safe
  - compiler produces large binaries
  - coroutines invoke blocking calls
  - community behavior is, uh, "unwelcoming"

Re: V Language Review (2023)

#8

Post by TwentyPosts » Sat, Feb 24, 2024, 5:57 PM UTC

archsurface wrote: post #6

"a summary of my experience with the language over 6 months " -- I was only able to use it for a week around Christmas before hitting compiler bugs. I like the look of it, but I can't currently use it.

To be fair, I ran into a compiler bug in Zig within a few hours of using it. I'd still expect Zig to be a lot less buggy than V, based on what I heard.

Last time I looked at V it just seemed like the language wanted to have it all. No tradeoffs, just "The best parts of Rust and Go" with no explanation how that's remotely achievable (and it wasn't, judging by the attempts to make "auto free" memory management happen, and having to discover first hand that this is not a good approach, and the problem is turing complete).

Re: V Language Review (2023)

#9

Post by lkey » Sat, Feb 24, 2024, 5:58 PM UTC

V's claims have always been dubious on their face. It promised the programming language equivalent of magic with no overhead. I'm glad that someone took the time to print receipts.

The author clearly wants a reckoning, but he's unlikely to receive satisfaction. The people that still use or evangelize V are locked in, the contradictions will only make their belief stronger. Alex is a bullshitter, and arguing with someone like that is pointless.

Re: V Language Review (2023)

#10

Post by artemonster » Sat, Feb 24, 2024, 5:59 PM UTC

Alifatisk wrote: post #2

I remember there was some controversy or drama with V a couple of years ago regarding the language. I forgot what it was about but I haven’t heard about V since then. This article was interesting to read!

V claims to be the next best thing that ever happened since sliced bread, but instead its development over years is just yak shaving on steroids. These review posts just prove that.