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Go is my hammer, and everything is a nail

maragu.dev

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Re: Go is my hammer, and everything is a nail

#21

Post by markusw »

DarkNova6 wrote: post #4

If all you know is a Hammer… I was searching for reasons why to use the Go-Hammer when there are comparable ones such as Java, C#, etc. but the article left me wanting. It strikes me that Go is riding the peak of hype languages, succeeding Rust and Node.js (which are all good pieces of technology and absolutely have their merit). And like with most hype driven decisions there is little (self) awareness of context and…

I wasn't aiming for that. My point is more: I know Go already, it's good enough for my purposes, so I'm using that as my hammer. I could just as well have been Java or C# I learned eight years ago and used that for everything. :)

Re: Go is my hammer, and everything is a nail

#22

Post by neonsunset »

bborud wrote: post #17
lawgimenez wrote: post #3

I wish Go had a decent UI framework though.

Can you give me an example of a decent UI framework? Or frameworks? (I'm not a GUI programmer, but I've been dabbling a bit using Fyne. I figured that in the C++/C# sphere UI frameworks especially on Windows were sorted out until I read an article by some frustrated individual who listed all the problems he has with various UI frameworks on Windows. So I realized that perhaps this isn't as well sorted as I thought. I…

Windows situation is kind-of a mess, but cross-platform story is in a good state mainly thanks to AvaloniaUI and Uno (and you can always use things like SDL2 or MonoGame if you feel like approaching the problem in a more “hands-on” way).

Re: Go is my hammer, and everything is a nail

#23

Post by busterarm »

Thaxll wrote: post #19
busterarm wrote: post #9

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> It strikes me that Go is riding the peak of hype languages. Very much so. Also it seems to be a strange choice as a solo developer when its strengths are explicitly targeted at large organizations. And I think the tooling is actually a bit of a mess compared to some other options. God help you if as a solo developer you start building on top of protobufs (another basically default choice in the Golang world...). I…

Protobuf is not the default in Go the default is REST. What tools are a mess? Go tooling ( runtime ) and IDE integration is very good. Go is not a hyped language, we're past that cycle, some critical and widely used software are built in Go, millions of people rely on it.

Bazel.

While not Go-specific, it's the extremely popular option in the space and I've seen it bring many-a-seasoned wizard to their knees in tears.

Also managing your go dependencies if you cargo-cult other Google behaviors like monorepos tends to be painful.

Basically just cargo-culting Google behavior == pain. Choosing golang can often be part of this behavior pattern.

Re: Go is my hammer, and everything is a nail

#24

Post by the_real_cher »

dimgl wrote: post #7
caerwy wrote: post #5

This article is not so much about Go but about choosing to specialize in one language ecosystem instead of spreading one's attention across several.

Which is unfortunate because I think Go is very useful in a wide variety of business contexts.

Then you would find this article very fortunate.

Re: Go is my hammer, and everything is a nail

#25

Post by markusw »

busterarm wrote: post #9
DarkNova6 wrote: post #4

If all you know is a Hammer… I was searching for reasons why to use the Go-Hammer when there are comparable ones such as Java, C#, etc. but the article left me wanting. It strikes me that Go is riding the peak of hype languages, succeeding Rust and Node.js (which are all good pieces of technology and absolutely have their merit). And like with most hype driven decisions there is little (self) awareness of context and…

> It strikes me that Go is riding the peak of hype languages. Very much so. Also it seems to be a strange choice as a solo developer when its strengths are explicitly targeted at large organizations. And I think the tooling is actually a bit of a mess compared to some other options. God help you if as a solo developer you start building on top of protobufs (another basically default choice in the Golang world...). I…

Author here. Well, it has worked pretty well for me so far, so I don't know why I would switch. Go is fast and expressive enough for my use, and it's probably outweighed by being super familiar anyway.

(BTW, in my eight years of Go, I think I've used protobufs maybe once or twice. HTTP FTW!)

Re: Go is my hammer, and everything is a nail

#26

Post by euroderf »

bborud wrote: post #17
lawgimenez wrote: post #3

I wish Go had a decent UI framework though.

Can you give me an example of a decent UI framework? Or frameworks? (I'm not a GUI programmer, but I've been dabbling a bit using Fyne. I figured that in the C++/C# sphere UI frameworks especially on Windows were sorted out until I read an article by some frustrated individual who listed all the problems he has with various UI frameworks on Windows. So I realized that perhaps this isn't as well sorted as I thought. I…

Cogent Core looks promising.

Re: Go is my hammer, and everything is a nail

#28

Post by ergonaught »

busterarm wrote: post #20
ergonaught wrote: post #16

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> I just don't understand why you wouldn't choose something faster and more expressive. The answer to this is as simple as genuinely asking, answering, and understanding why you don't do all of your development in assembly language.

I didn't mean faster in terms of execution time but in terms of development time. And more expressive is doing more with less code. We're at complete opposite ends of the spectrum here -- how that indicated to you that I meant assembly...

It's the same principle.

My own experience (I'm not the author) is that the investment required to reach the point where Go can be a "hammer" as in this case is lower (usually significantly lower) than with "faster and more expressive" languages.

Re: Go is my hammer, and everything is a nail

#29

Post by markusw »

Scarblac wrote: post #8
DarkNova6 wrote: post #4

If all you know is a Hammer… I was searching for reasons why to use the Go-Hammer when there are comparable ones such as Java, C#, etc. but the article left me wanting. It strikes me that Go is riding the peak of hype languages, succeeding Rust and Node.js (which are all good pieces of technology and absolutely have their merit). And like with most hype driven decisions there is little (self) awareness of context and…

I think he could have chosen those alternatives just as well, he just happened to pick Go. His argument is that he strives to use his chosen tool in as many situations as possible instead of having a bunch of different ones.

Yup, this exactly!
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