8 ms·

You based a business decision to switch language on "boredom"? What size team are you working with, that you were able to switch from Java to Go?

by eterm 11y ago

aws_ls 11y ago
Good question. Small team of 2 developers, so I had that kind of luxury, which I am sure is not there when you have larger teams.
nickbauman 11y ago
Yeah odd choice in that Go is a very boring language (and its enthusiasts consider this a feature).
- pconner 11y ago
  What's "boring" about it? I'd argue that the possibilities for crazy concurrency patterns make it exciting.
StevePerkins 11y ago
If he were honest, I'm sure the weights for each factor really look like this: * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * (2) (1) (3) (4) (5) (all others)
skrebbel 11y ago
Best reason ever! Just to push a counterpoint, I never understood those startups with foosball tables, sponsored beer, team workaholidays on tropical islands but god forbid the work itself is any fun. If a technology choice makes people enjoy their work more, learn new things, help them think differently and thus get more creative, then isn't that a big plus? Sure, maybe it does not weigh up to whatever downsides there are, but it counts! The whole idea that "fun" isn't allowed to be an important argument in a business decision feels horribly outdated to me.
- Lambdanaut 11y ago
  Voice of dissension here. I switched from: * Mysql to MongoDB * PHP to Python * Javascript to Coffeescript All because I was bored of the old tech. and it made the site unmaintainable. I mostly blame the MongoDB and Coffeescript for that. Now to be fair, I learned a ton and I am so glad for that experience, but I lost my website.
  - krisdol 11y ago
    Do you really thing it's fair to blame a whole language for making your project unmaintainable, when you admit you were just learning it -- and you had come from PHP?
    - eterm 11y ago
      php is much maligned here on HN, but it doesn't mean that it automatically makes for a bad programmer. Here's another exmaple for you: Over the years, the project I work on has used the following: vb .NET C# .NET WCF asp Webforms MVC2 MVC4 The result is a maintenance headache (it's not a nightmare, but we do have to pause every time we unexpectedly encounter VB!), and that's where we've been disciplined enough to stay within the MS/ASP stack. Had developers been allowed to really go off-piste then we no doubt would have even more choices, and as a result be even less maintainable. Yes, you might not be attractive to a certain subset of programmers if you are seen to be not using a trendy new language or framework, but there's the other side that by often switching you are left with a long laundry list you need to satisfy when you're recruiting so they can maintain the older parts. We already don't require vb experience, and we expect that people can pick it up well enough to maintain it, but a side-project in "go" might seem fun now, but if it becomes part of the business then you might find that in 5 years you have to take a bad choice in recruiting because otherwise you're left without anyone who can maintain that application.
      - noir_lord 11y ago
        > but it doesn't mean that it automatically makes for a bad programmer. I came to PHP late from proper languages circa 2008/2009ish been programming since I was a kid in the 80's, I've no great love for the language, it's purely a tool and once you ignore the rusty bits it's not a bad language for a lot of web stuff but I've never been concerned with purity/beauty for it's own sake I just care about what I can do in a language, these days I use PHP a lot on the web, Python for just about everything else (even my build system for automating browserify is in Python using Envoy) and I play with Go and such on the side. All that and there is a lot of work in PHP clearing up after others (if you like those kinds of engineering problems which I do) which is also nice.
scotty79 11y ago
> You based a business decision to switch language on "boredom"? Not just boredom but Java induced boredom. In case of Java boredom is symptom not the essence.

You based a business decision to switch language on "boredom"? What size team are you working with, that you were able to switch from Java to Go?

by eterm 11y ago

You based a business decision to switch language on "boredom"? What size team are you working with, that you were able to switch from Java to Go?

aws_ls 11y ago

Good question. Small team of 2 developers, so I had that kind of luxury, which I am sure is not there when you have larger teams.

nickbauman 11y ago

Yeah odd choice in that Go is a very boring language (and its enthusiasts consider this a feature).

pconner 11y ago
What's "boring" about it? I'd argue that the possibilities for crazy concurrency patterns make it exciting.

StevePerkins 11y ago

If he were honest, I'm sure the weights for each factor really look like this: * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * (2) (1) (3) (4) (5) (all others)

skrebbel 11y ago

Best reason ever! Just to push a counterpoint, I never understood those startups with foosball tables, sponsored beer, team workaholidays on tropical islands but god forbid the work itself is any fun. If a technology choice makes people enjoy their work more, learn new things, help them think differently and thus get more creative, then isn't that a big plus? Sure, maybe it does not weigh up to whatever downsides there are, but it counts! The whole idea that "fun" isn't allowed to be an important argument in a business decision feels horribly outdated to me.

Lambdanaut 11y ago
Voice of dissension here. I switched from: * Mysql to MongoDB * PHP to Python * Javascript to Coffeescript All because I was bored of the old tech. and it made the site unmaintainable. I mostly blame the MongoDB and Coffeescript for that. Now to be fair, I learned a ton and I am so glad for that experience, but I lost my website.
- krisdol 11y ago
  Do you really thing it's fair to blame a whole language for making your project unmaintainable, when you admit you were just learning it -- and you had come from PHP?
  - eterm 11y ago
    php is much maligned here on HN, but it doesn't mean that it automatically makes for a bad programmer. Here's another exmaple for you: Over the years, the project I work on has used the following: vb .NET C# .NET WCF asp Webforms MVC2 MVC4 The result is a maintenance headache (it's not a nightmare, but we do have to pause every time we unexpectedly encounter VB!), and that's where we've been disciplined enough to stay within the MS/ASP stack. Had developers been allowed to really go off-piste then we no doubt would have even more choices, and as a result be even less maintainable. Yes, you might not be attractive to a certain subset of programmers if you are seen to be not using a trendy new language or framework, but there's the other side that by often switching you are left with a long laundry list you need to satisfy when you're recruiting so they can maintain the older parts. We already don't require vb experience, and we expect that people can pick it up well enough to maintain it, but a side-project in "go" might seem fun now, but if it becomes part of the business then you might find that in 5 years you have to take a bad choice in recruiting because otherwise you're left without anyone who can maintain that application.
    - noir_lord 11y ago
      > but it doesn't mean that it automatically makes for a bad programmer. I came to PHP late from proper languages circa 2008/2009ish been programming since I was a kid in the 80's, I've no great love for the language, it's purely a tool and once you ignore the rusty bits it's not a bad language for a lot of web stuff but I've never been concerned with purity/beauty for it's own sake I just care about what I can do in a language, these days I use PHP a lot on the web, Python for just about everything else (even my build system for automating browserify is in Python using Envoy) and I play with Go and such on the side. All that and there is a lot of work in PHP clearing up after others (if you like those kinds of engineering problems which I do) which is also nice.

scotty79 11y ago

> You based a business decision to switch language on "boredom"? Not just boredom but Java induced boredom. In case of Java boredom is symptom not the essence.