Hacker News Board Hacker News, browsed like a classic message board
Live data from Hacker News

Russ Cox is stepping down as the Go tech lead

groups.google.com

Post reply on HN
Print view View original

61–70 of 396 posts

Re: Russ Cox is stepping down as the Go tech lead

#61

Post by galkk »

vyskocilm wrote: post #14
ainar-g wrote: post #2

Thank you, rsc, for all your work. Development in Go has become much more enjoyable in these 12 years: race detector, standardized error wrapping, modules, generics, toolchain updates, and so on. And while there are still things to be desired (sum types, better enum/range types, immutability, and non-nilness in my personal wishlist), Go is still the most enjoyable ecosystem I've ever developed in.

Well written list of what made Go better language during last years. I'd add iterators, the recent big thing from Russ.

Wow. I haven't followed Go for a while, thanks for that note.

Iterators are very nice addition, even with typical Go fashion of quite ugly syntax.

Re: Russ Cox is stepping down as the Go tech lead

#62

Post by tempest_ »

arp242 wrote: post #60
tempest_ wrote: post #57

Earlier quoted context omitted.

What do you mean it doesnt really work? There are a large number of programming languages and open source projects and a large number of approaches to this problem. Python, Postgres, Rust.. A small amount of core contributors doesn't mean they all have to come from a single corporate entity either. The notion that only Google could shepherd a programming language is hilarious.

> The notion that only Google could shepherd a programming language is hilarious. I never said anything of the sort. I said that "let the community vote on who new leaders are" doesn't work. Python, PostgreSQL, and Rust don't work like that either; it's just members of a fairly small "core team" that can vote, or some variant thereof. I have no inside knowledge here, but I'll stake a good amount of money that the Go…

I think Googles good will in recent years is the problem.

I think Rust is better divorced from Mozilla, and Go would be better if it was divorced a bit from Google for a lot of the same reasons.

Re: Russ Cox is stepping down as the Go tech lead

#64

Post by groby_b »

alphazard wrote: post #56

> I don’t believe that the “BDFL” (benevolent dictator for life) model is healthy for a person or a project It's interesting that the best projects have BDFLs, and that the best BDFLs are skeptical of their own power.

The only people worth having in power are the ones that don't want the power.

This extends well beyond OSS projects.

Re: Russ Cox is stepping down as the Go tech lead

#65

Post by ncruces »

IshKebab wrote: post #41
muratsu wrote: post #29

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Huhhh? Have you ever worked at a large enough company where stakeholder interests are not aligned?

That's private drama. For all we know there has been loads, but it's private so you can't see it.

Where would you expect to see this drama unfold if it were private? Nowhere? That'd be incredible opsec.

Code review happens in public, not on GitHub but on Gerrit. The main issue tracker is public, on GitHub. Proposals are largely handled on the issue tracker. There are public mailing lists, etc.

Surely, there are face to face private meetings. And there are likely also private issue trackers, mailing lists, and etc. And, yes, sometimes, a seemingly arbitrary decision pops up, that was clearly discussed elsewhere.

But these comments seem to come from people who never even tried to contribute, or deal with the process.

I've done docs fixes as a total newb, had to convince the Windows maintainer to let me fix a Windows issue (that a year later produced flaky tests, which I fixed), made and got a proposal accepted, have a project in the linkname hall-of-shame, which led to another successful proposal to open up APIs (which then failed tests on some platforms, which I fixed).

All with little drama, pure engineering.

Re: Russ Cox is stepping down as the Go tech lead

#67

Post by klartd »

Thanks for all the Go contributions!

I disagree on one point that has nothing to do with Go. Python has not benefitted from GvR stepping down. The new "leadership" is non-technical, tyrannical and has driven almost all true open source contributors away.

Development has stalled except for the few corporate contributions of doubtful quality. The atmosphere is repressive and all that matters is whether you have a position of power at Microsoft/Instagram/Bloomberg.

It is not necessarily the fault of these companies. They may not know that their generosity is being abused.

Re: Russ Cox is stepping down as the Go tech lead

#68

Post by darby_nine »

alphazard wrote: post #56

> I don’t believe that the “BDFL” (benevolent dictator for life) model is healthy for a person or a project It's interesting that the best projects have BDFLs, and that the best BDFLs are skeptical of their own power.

I don't think this is true. Python had a BDFL and it didn't seem to benefit much from it. I'm not sure what other projects this attitude draws from. Off-hand I'd guess it causes less drama but no appreciable increase of quality, just like other forms of bureaucracy.

Meanwhile there's entire landfills of failed projects with single owners who couldn't bend enough. We just don't find this worth discussing.

Of course this won't happen, but a man can dream.

Re: Russ Cox is stepping down as the Go tech lead

#69

Post by sidewndr46 »

ein0p wrote: post #23
hoten wrote: post #19

Earlier quoted context omitted.

What are some things that make it well managed?

Almost zero drama and almost no feature creep or breaking changes. The team seems to have a focus, and does not change it easily. That is important for a programming language, and it doesn’t happen organically.

Absolutely inaccurate. Pointer de-reference operator had a breaking change after 1.x

Re: Russ Cox is stepping down as the Go tech lead

#70

Post by anamexis »

darby_nine wrote: post #68
alphazard wrote: post #56

> I don’t believe that the “BDFL” (benevolent dictator for life) model is healthy for a person or a project It's interesting that the best projects have BDFLs, and that the best BDFLs are skeptical of their own power.

I don't think this is true. Python had a BDFL and it didn't seem to benefit much from it. I'm not sure what other projects this attitude draws from. Off-hand I'd guess it causes less drama but no appreciable increase of quality, just like other forms of bureaucracy. Meanwhile there's entire landfills of failed projects with single owners who couldn't bend enough. We just don't find this worth discussing. Of course th…

Linux/Linus Torvalds stands out as another notable BDFL.
Post reply on HN