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The Go Programming Language by Brian W. Kernighan, Alan Donovan

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Re: The Go Programming Language by Brian W. Kernighan, Alan Donovan

#31

Post by aros »

sesteel wrote: post #26

Go, with its simplicity, is a gift from the generation of masters to today's professionals, but many of today's professionals appear too ignorant to see the wisdom of the language. It used to drive me crazy when I would read negative comments in r/programming and HN, but I don't even pay attention to the negative comments anymore. The adoption is far better than I was afraid it was going to be.

Can you please elaborate on the "wisdom of the language" and why you feel it's necessary to ignore all criticism?

Re: The Go Programming Language by Brian W. Kernighan, Alan Donovan

#32

Post by NateDad »

mateuszf wrote: post #30
sesteel wrote: post #26

Go, with its simplicity, is a gift from the generation of masters to today's professionals, but many of today's professionals appear too ignorant to see the wisdom of the language. It used to drive me crazy when I would read negative comments in r/programming and HN, but I don't even pay attention to the negative comments anymore. The adoption is far better than I was afraid it was going to be.

Two words: error handling and generics.

I agree, those are two great reasons to use Go.

Re: The Go Programming Language by Brian W. Kernighan, Alan Donovan

#33

Post by pjmlp »

eric_bullington wrote: post #9

I've not been a huge fan of Go (more of a Rust person). However, seeing these authors, I'm now itching to get my hands on a copy of this book and give Go another shot. I wish I didn't have to wait until the summer for it! Edit: Also, I realize it's unfair to compare Rust to Go, since they really fill two different PL niches. I actually think there is plenty of room for both languages. By my statement above, I just me…

Same here with regards vs Go, but given the authors the book is most likely worth reading.

Just have to think if I still want the classic hardcover version or go for the Kindle version when available.

Re: The Go Programming Language by Brian W. Kernighan, Alan Donovan

#34

Post by microtonal »

crncosta wrote: post #10

I would like to take a glance. Does any one know where is the Table of Content? Thanks.

http://www.informit.com/store/go-programming-language-978013...

Seems like a no-nonsense approach like the K&R book. I am sold already :).

Re: The Go Programming Language by Brian W. Kernighan, Alan Donovan

#35

Post by ceronman »

sesteel wrote: post #26

Go, with its simplicity, is a gift from the generation of masters to today's professionals, but many of today's professionals appear too ignorant to see the wisdom of the language. It used to drive me crazy when I would read negative comments in r/programming and HN, but I don't even pay attention to the negative comments anymore. The adoption is far better than I was afraid it was going to be.

You mention the key point of Go: simplicity. I think many developers tend to underestimate the power of simplicity and overestimate the power of certain features. Every single abstraction has a price in complexity. This is why Lisp, being a super powerful language invented in the 1950s never got widely used. Even when the syntax is simple, the conceptual complexity of the language is quite big. Same thing happens with Haskell and at some point with Rust. In the end people realize you can actually build things up without paying this complexity tax with simpler languages. This is why languages like Go succeed.

Note: Rust actually has a chance because it's simple compared to its competition: modern C++.

Re: The Go Programming Language by Brian W. Kernighan, Alan Donovan

#36

Post by tempodox »

odonnellryan wrote: post #27
tempodox wrote: post #25

In my personal view, I find it disappointing that someone like Brian Kernighan, as a co-author of C, only got as far as Go. I would have loved it much more to see him working on a language like Rust, that actually seems to point to the future of programming languages (or does its best at it), while Go looks like a stopgap and a dead end right from the beginning. Go seems a fine piece of engineering in so far as it di…

I've had tons of fun with Go, and I've also used it in real production code! I don't think it is really fair to say he "only" made it this far. It's something that actually brings enjoyment and productivity to possibly millions of people!

BASIC brought enjoyment and productivity to possibly millions of people. That doesn't mean there's nothing better.

Re: The Go Programming Language by Brian W. Kernighan, Alan Donovan

#37

Post by touristtam »

mateuszf wrote: post #30
sesteel wrote: post #26

Go, with its simplicity, is a gift from the generation of masters to today's professionals, but many of today's professionals appear too ignorant to see the wisdom of the language. It used to drive me crazy when I would read negative comments in r/programming and HN, but I don't even pay attention to the negative comments anymore. The adoption is far better than I was afraid it was going to be.

Two words: error handling and generics.

that's 4 words .... and if you are not comfortable with those two aspect of the language and have the choice, I don't see why you need to use golang.

Re: The Go Programming Language by Brian W. Kernighan, Alan Donovan

#38

Post by microtonal »

mateuszf wrote: post #30
sesteel wrote: post #26

Go, with its simplicity, is a gift from the generation of masters to today's professionals, but many of today's professionals appear too ignorant to see the wisdom of the language. It used to drive me crazy when I would read negative comments in r/programming and HN, but I don't even pay attention to the negative comments anymore. The adoption is far better than I was afraid it was going to be.

Two words: error handling and generics.

Error handling is something that I did get used to, especially considering that one can assign and check in an if-statement.

Generics I still miss every single day.

But not enough to stop using Go. It's pretty much C with interfaces, a garbage collector, and safety. What more can one wish for?

Re: The Go Programming Language by Brian W. Kernighan, Alan Donovan

#39

Post by Dewie »

sesteel wrote: post #26

Go, with its simplicity, is a gift from the generation of masters to today's professionals, but many of today's professionals appear too ignorant to see the wisdom of the language. It used to drive me crazy when I would read negative comments in r/programming and HN, but I don't even pay attention to the negative comments anymore. The adoption is far better than I was afraid it was going to be.

Maybe part of the problem is that people that promote Go in some capacity will at times make good arguments for certain things, but when they find something that they can't really explain, or that might seem subpar, they devolve their argument into some kind of appeal to authority - 'who am I to question their decisions. These are experienced, respected programmers with a lot of accomplishments. Who are anyone born after 1985 to judge them, really?'

So maybe you'll excuse some people for not simply assuming that the masters are right just by virtue of who they are.

Re: The Go Programming Language by Brian W. Kernighan, Alan Donovan

#40

Post by yiyus »

tempodox wrote: post #25

In my personal view, I find it disappointing that someone like Brian Kernighan, as a co-author of C, only got as far as Go. I would have loved it much more to see him working on a language like Rust, that actually seems to point to the future of programming languages (or does its best at it), while Go looks like a stopgap and a dead end right from the beginning. Go seems a fine piece of engineering in so far as it di…

In my personal view, I find terribly arrogant to find disappointing how far Brian Kernighan has got. Even only what he has done between C and Go is more than most successful careers.
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