4 ms·

Not really. You'll notice a pattern in most tech bigcos where they move from dynamic lang X to a statically typed language that can multithread properly. A fe

Not really. You'll notice a pattern in most tech bigcos where they move from dynamic lang X to a statically typed language that can multithread properly. A few examples: Ruby on rails to java (twitter). Java & c++ (google). Java (linked in). Python/Node -> Java/Go (uber). Or they start doing silly things like make a new VM (facebook).

plafl 9y ago
I wonder if there is some survivor bias there. I'm sure there must be cases where everything went wrong but nobody writes about it.
- adrianratnapala 9y ago
  Wouldn't survivor bias explain who BigCo X can be found using whatever questionable choice they originally made, but not explain why lots of BigCos have changed their practices. This might explain Facebook and PHP, but it doesn't explain the stuff mentioned in the previous comment.
stuartaxelowen 9y ago
I heard through the grapevine that Go was only chosen at Uber to help with hiring.
- stock_toaster 9y ago
  That seems silly. There are far more Java devs out there than Go devs. Also, I would assume Uber probably has hiring problems in general at this point.
  - sidlls 9y ago
    > That seems silly. There are far more Java devs out there than Go devs. I wouldn't underestimate the level of hype-driven development that exists in this area. "Chasing the new shiny" seems like it could be a line item in a resume, these days, sometimes.
  - nailer 9y ago
    There are more good Go devs. A lot of Java programmers are enterprise.
- mvid 9y ago
  I would imagine that node would draw more enthusiasm than Go
petre 9y ago
There is RoR for Jruby which has native threads, plus you can call Java methods from Ruby.
jrs95 9y ago
Plus Facebook has a lot of C++ and some Java services as well, in addition to the Hack/HHVM stuff.
zepolen 9y ago
Don't be obtuse, it's not because of multithreading. They move to static typed because their team is 100+ developers none of which knows the entire code base - and static typing helps lower the bugs possible.
bpicolo 9y ago
Google uses plenty of Python, no? I don't think threading is a relevant factor for many of those decisions. Perf and static typing, sure.
- treebog 9y ago
  Not a googler, but I have heard that most of the python at google is under Youtube, which Google got in an acquisition.
crdoconnor 9y ago
From python to go and back again https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=10402307 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=10402307 (mozilla)
digitalzombie 9y ago
Linkedin was mostly scala and then they did some stuff with node.js >___> Walmart also moved to node.js. Hype was real.

plafl 9y ago

I wonder if there is some survivor bias there. I'm sure there must be cases where everything went wrong but nobody writes about it.

adrianratnapala 9y ago
Wouldn't survivor bias explain who BigCo X can be found using whatever questionable choice they originally made, but not explain why lots of BigCos have changed their practices. This might explain Facebook and PHP, but it doesn't explain the stuff mentioned in the previous comment.

stuartaxelowen 9y ago

I heard through the grapevine that Go was only chosen at Uber to help with hiring.

stock_toaster 9y ago
That seems silly. There are far more Java devs out there than Go devs. Also, I would assume Uber probably has hiring problems in general at this point.
- sidlls 9y ago
  > That seems silly. There are far more Java devs out there than Go devs. I wouldn't underestimate the level of hype-driven development that exists in this area. "Chasing the new shiny" seems like it could be a line item in a resume, these days, sometimes.
- nailer 9y ago
  There are more good Go devs. A lot of Java programmers are enterprise.
mvid 9y ago
I would imagine that node would draw more enthusiasm than Go

petre 9y ago

There is RoR for Jruby which has native threads, plus you can call Java methods from Ruby.

jrs95 9y ago

Plus Facebook has a lot of C++ and some Java services as well, in addition to the Hack/HHVM stuff.

zepolen 9y ago

Don't be obtuse, it's not because of multithreading. They move to static typed because their team is 100+ developers none of which knows the entire code base - and static typing helps lower the bugs possible.

bpicolo 9y ago

Google uses plenty of Python, no? I don't think threading is a relevant factor for many of those decisions. Perf and static typing, sure.

treebog 9y ago
Not a googler, but I have heard that most of the python at google is under Youtube, which Google got in an acquisition.

crdoconnor 9y ago

From python to go and back again https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=10402307 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=10402307 (mozilla)

digitalzombie 9y ago

Linkedin was mostly scala and then they did some stuff with node.js >___> Walmart also moved to node.js. Hype was real.