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Four years of Go

blog.golang.org

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Re: Four years of Go

#21

Post by stock_toaster »

knodi wrote: post #6

I been using Go for a year now. Its hard to explain but for the most part I enjoy coding with Go. I could say i find it fun/enjoyable but that doesn't seem to convey the right feeling.

When using Go, I sometimes get the same feeling I get when using a well made drill, saw, or other physical tool. I would qualify it as "satisfying" -- the way it feels and how well it accomplishes the task it is designed for.

Like many well designed and well engineered things, I think familiarity and time cause that satisfying feeling to blend into the background and become the norm. You only realize the difference again when you have cause to use some other tool laying around (I just need to pound this nail I will just grab this random hammer laying here) and it "feels" different -- the weight is wrong or the grip is weird.

I by no means claim Go is perfect, but it seems to a great match for the kinds of things I tend to work on, and it "fits in my hand" rather well these days.

Re: Four years of Go

#22

Post by enneff »

dbaupp wrote: post #20
girvo wrote: post #19

Earlier quoted context omitted.

That... doesn't really change the general point?

Yes it does, the point is "Go's ecosystem has developed really fast" but maybe a (hypothetical) better language developed in this day & age would've reached the same point in 2 years?

"A better language might do better" is not a very interesting point to make.

Re: Four years of Go

#23

Post by threeseed »

thrownaway2424 wrote: post #12
spullara wrote: post #10

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Seems pretty far behind Java in terms of adoption. By 1999, virtually all new enterprise development was being done on Java. In 1997 Java was already #4 on the TIOBE language popularity index. Go isn't even close.

That's true. Java in the 90s was a spectacular con job that millions of developers and managers bought hook, line, and sinker. XML was pretty big back then, too, and now nobody gives two warm shits about XML. Just saying. Anyway the hype is surely not the reason why anyone should use go. People should use go because it has good libraries, encourages good interfaces, is fast and space efficient, has good self document…

Spectacular con job ? Are you joking ?

There was and continues to remain NOTHING that compares to the Java platform.

Re: Four years of Go

#24

Post by chetanahuja »

Looks like Go is succeeding more in the space where scripting languages like Python and Ruby are dominant and less in it's original intended space (systems programming). Rob Pike has written about it too. I wonder if they see this as an opportunity missed or unexpected boon.

Re: Four years of Go

#25

Post by yareally »

enneff wrote: post #8
dbaupp wrote: post #7

Earlier quoted context omitted.

None of the languages being compared against were released in the ubiquitous-internet age with things like Github and widespread blogging to drive interest and adoption.

I don't think the comparison is supposed to be a value judgement of C++, Java, or Python. It's just an observation about how quickly the Go ecosystem has matured. Of course the internet played a huge role in this!

If one is going to compare a language to Go, I would go with C#, since it's only slightly older (2001 or so) and also backed by a major corporation.

Re: Four years of Go

#26

Post by aaronblohowiak »

dmak wrote: post #14
donutdan4114 wrote: post #3

I am only a beginner in Go, but what I have done so far, I have loved. It's a great alternative to your typical scripting languages like PHP, Perl, Python, Ruby, Node, etc, etc, etc... And simpler and funner to use than C/C++ IMO. I really hope it keeps gaining momentum.

Could you go into detail on your experiences for Go compared to JS or Ruby?

Takes me about 10-20% longer to do trivial things in go than ruby, but the results are much faster and bigger refactorings are also much faster to complete (nice type system). The ability to really max your perf out in short amount of time is also delightful

Re: Four years of Go

#27

Post by thrownaway2424 »

threeseed wrote: post #23
thrownaway2424 wrote: post #12

Earlier quoted context omitted.

That's true. Java in the 90s was a spectacular con job that millions of developers and managers bought hook, line, and sinker. XML was pretty big back then, too, and now nobody gives two warm shits about XML. Just saying. Anyway the hype is surely not the reason why anyone should use go. People should use go because it has good libraries, encourages good interfaces, is fast and space efficient, has good self document…

Spectacular con job ? Are you joking ? There was and continues to remain NOTHING that compares to the Java platform.

I assume you mean in terms of hype?

Java can do stuff and people use it which is fine. The con was that it was inherently portable and secure and can be used for client software. None of that is true. Today if someone told me that our new client interface was going to be java that person would be reassigned to a role where their awful judgement would not resurface.

Java today is basically the slower edition of C++ which isn't that amazing of a niche.

Re: Four years of Go

#28

Post by sitkack »

sergiotapia wrote: post #13

I'm betting on Go at the moment, using it to build some little libraries and writing some dummy apps to test the waters. Hopefully in 4 years when Golang developers are in demand, I have 4 years of experience under my belt. :)

Programming is now multi-language and multi-paradigm. It matters more what you can do and not what you can do it in. Being able to compose libraries and systems from parts is way more important than knowing a specific language.

Re: Four years of Go

#29

Post by enneff »

chetanahuja wrote: post #24

Looks like Go is succeeding more in the space where scripting languages like Python and Ruby are dominant and less in it's original intended space (systems programming). Rob Pike has written about it too. I wonder if they see this as an opportunity missed or unexpected boon.

We definitely made a mistake at launch using the term "systems programming", because people automatically think of operating systems. What we meant were the kind of systems we build at google. Some of the examples in the blog post are "systems programming" in the same sense.

So we are pleased to see Go being used for the job it was designed for, but we are also happy to see that Go has a broader appeal.

Re: Four years of Go

#30

Post by sitkack »

misnome wrote: post #2

> "The state of the Go ecosystem after only four years is astounding. Compare Go in 2013 to Python in 1995 or Java in 1999. Or C++ in 1987!" Wow! The state of C++ searches on google were 0 in 1987, as were searches for "Apples" and "Oranges" so go must be doing incredibly well to have infinity times the results!

Everything in "the future" will always have faster adoption curves. There is more of everything so comparing them is quite difficult.
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