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> Am I in the minority to think of Go as a completely unnecessary move-along-now-nothing-to-see-here project? Ignoring your broadside of insults, I keep asking

> Am I in the minority to think of Go as a completely unnecessary move-along-now-nothing-to-see-here project? Ignoring your broadside of insults, I keep asking myself the same thing after working with it: What is so compelling about Go? It's better than C, but we already have good choices in that area. I feel like there's a bandwagon effect around the language.

fixermark 11y ago
Personally, it's replaced Python and Ruby for my web development. I like the compile-time typechecking and the ability to annotate structs and then use those annotations as direct rules for serializing data via XML / JSON serializers. The compile-time typechecking means I don't need 100% coverage to make sure I haven't typo'd a variable name somewhere. But if you weren't using Python or Ruby for your web development, YMMV.
icholy 11y ago
The language enforces simplicity (making it easy to read), the standard library is dope, and the runtime is fast/robust.
wstrange 11y ago
I see Go as having a nice niche for "systems" code that is above C, but more low level than say python. I think that is why we see it used in docker, kubernetes, etc. The ability to distribute binaries is quite handy for containers. I am surprised that people want to use Go for web apps though. For whatever reason, Dart seems unpopular with the HN crowd, which is shame because it is a super productive language. It has a fast VM, great tooling, a sane package management system, and a lot of deployment options. Server side libraries are still lacking, but the situation is improving.
- BuckRogers 11y ago
  > I am surprised that people want to use Go for web apps though. This. I'd put it under consideration for where I'd pick Java (an increasingly limited space now for myself), but I really do not think it competes directly with Python/Ruby or C-ABI compatible compiled languages like Rust. It's on an island like Java. As a result, you're going all-in with Go, but netting a much smaller ecosystem than Java's. I prefer to not go all-in with either. If I were to reach for Go for webapps, I'd be just as if not more inclined to look at Swift as it matures.

fixermark 11y ago

Personally, it's replaced Python and Ruby for my web development. I like the compile-time typechecking and the ability to annotate structs and then use those annotations as direct rules for serializing data via XML / JSON serializers. The compile-time typechecking means I don't need 100% coverage to make sure I haven't typo'd a variable name somewhere. But if you weren't using Python or Ruby for your web development, YMMV.

icholy 11y ago

The language enforces simplicity (making it easy to read), the standard library is dope, and the runtime is fast/robust.

wstrange 11y ago

I see Go as having a nice niche for "systems" code that is above C, but more low level than say python. I think that is why we see it used in docker, kubernetes, etc. The ability to distribute binaries is quite handy for containers. I am surprised that people want to use Go for web apps though. For whatever reason, Dart seems unpopular with the HN crowd, which is shame because it is a super productive language. It has a fast VM, great tooling, a sane package management system, and a lot of deployment options. Server side libraries are still lacking, but the situation is improving.

BuckRogers 11y ago
> I am surprised that people want to use Go for web apps though. This. I'd put it under consideration for where I'd pick Java (an increasingly limited space now for myself), but I really do not think it competes directly with Python/Ruby or C-ABI compatible compiled languages like Rust. It's on an island like Java. As a result, you're going all-in with Go, but netting a much smaller ecosystem than Java's. I prefer to not go all-in with either. If I were to reach for Go for webapps, I'd be just as if not more inclined to look at Swift as it matures.