Sorry, I misunderstood your comment. I think the original poster was referring to the Plan 9 team's strong preference for C over C++. Plan 9 was written with a

Sorry, I misunderstood your comment. I think the original poster was referring to the Plan 9 team's strong preference for C over C++. Plan 9 was written with a modified version of C, and the developers seemed to be very interested in evolving the C language. As far as I can tell, they never used C++. > In the presentation before the awarding of the Japan Prize today, you were quoted on the distinction between research and development. [The former, Thompson stated, was directionless, whereas development had a specific goal in mind.] So in that context, is Go experimental? > Yes. When the three of us [Thompson, Rob Pike, and Robert Griesemer] got started, it was pure research. The three of us got together and decided that we hated C++. [laughter] [1] It looks like you were half-right about the early Go compiler being partly written in C++: There were two compilers, and "gccgo" had a C++ front-end, while their homemade compiler "gc" was written entirely in C. [2] [1] http://www.drdobbs.com/open-source/interview-with-ken-thompson/229502480 http://www.drdobbs.com/open-source/interview-with-ken-thomps... [2] https://golang.org/doc/faq#What_compiler_technology_is_used_to_build_the_compilers https://golang.org/doc/faq#What_compiler_technology_is_used_...