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> Everything about Go is designed to maximize what Google wants out of mid-range programmers. It's so weird how non-google people seem to find this state of aff

by remus 9y ago

> Everything about Go is designed to maximize what Google wants out of mid-range programmers. It's so weird how non-google people seem to find this state of affairs good. If it let's them build products that serve billions of users in ways that that were completely inconceivable even 30 years ago then maybe it's not such a bad tradeoff. To be clear I'm talking more about the philosophy that produced go, not so much the language itself. Obviously Google is more than go.

tmaly 9y ago
How does this only benefit Google? Other businesses can surely benefit from this aspect of Go. Heck if your an aspiring startup that has to hire new people, you gain from this.
- KirinDave 9y ago
  Why would this be beneficial unless you're also paying Google to host your software?
KirinDave 9y ago
As I suggested, it's not inherently bad but it's functioning at a scale that simply isn't replicatable by most orgs. If you think that approach can work for you in your job and that job is not at once of the top 10 tech find? Write an experience report about how you made it work.
stouset 9y ago
That's his point. It's not a bad tradeoff... for Google. It might be a bad tradeoff for you, if you don't (according to his thesis) have a revolving door of mid-level engineers lacking domain knowledge and/or a large fleet of SREs.
- KirinDave 9y ago
  Just an aside, it's slightly opposite from what you said. Google doesn't want software engineering at a larger scale to enter into the world of domain specific folks at all. So they specialize in giving domain specific folks a very tight coupling to the computer without a care in the world for most anything other than a narrow band of parameters. They very much have an org for generating software that treats domain specialists as pluggable domain optimizers. Architects and SRE all enable that.
pjmlp 9y ago
Given the features of Go, Google could have used Algol 68 instead, or Active Oberon just to refer something modern, and still make those wonderful products you mention. Which are still a minority compared with the amount of Google products written in Python, Java, C++ or even Dart. So, all the products were already conceivable in some 30 year old languages.

by remus 9y ago

tmaly 9y ago

How does this only benefit Google? Other businesses can surely benefit from this aspect of Go. Heck if your an aspiring startup that has to hire new people, you gain from this.

KirinDave 9y ago
Why would this be beneficial unless you're also paying Google to host your software?

KirinDave 9y ago

As I suggested, it's not inherently bad but it's functioning at a scale that simply isn't replicatable by most orgs. If you think that approach can work for you in your job and that job is not at once of the top 10 tech find? Write an experience report about how you made it work.

stouset 9y ago

That's his point. It's not a bad tradeoff... for Google. It might be a bad tradeoff for you, if you don't (according to his thesis) have a revolving door of mid-level engineers lacking domain knowledge and/or a large fleet of SREs.

KirinDave 9y ago
Just an aside, it's slightly opposite from what you said. Google doesn't want software engineering at a larger scale to enter into the world of domain specific folks at all. So they specialize in giving domain specific folks a very tight coupling to the computer without a care in the world for most anything other than a narrow band of parameters. They very much have an org for generating software that treats domain specialists as pluggable domain optimizers. Architects and SRE all enable that.

pjmlp 9y ago

Given the features of Go, Google could have used Algol 68 instead, or Active Oberon just to refer something modern, and still make those wonderful products you mention. Which are still a minority compared with the amount of Google products written in Python, Java, C++ or even Dart. So, all the products were already conceivable in some 30 year old languages.