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> Go was next. People were excited about this cool new language from Google, a place filled with great engineers, and from the mind of Rob Pike, of Unix and Pla

> Go was next. People were excited about this cool new language from Google, a place filled with great engineers, and from the mind of Rob Pike, of Unix and Plan 9 fame. It was supposed to be like a simpler and more elegant form of C. What's not to like. Well, the replies to this post are showing that for some the honeymoon is already over. As someone who has paid attention to this since Go was released, there never was a honeymoon. The complaints in this thread have been the same exact complaints people have been lodging against Go since 1.0 was released. What you're seeing is very simple to explain. Some people love Go. Some people like Go. Some people dislike Go. And some people hate Go.

pmoriarty 9y ago
You could say the exact same thing about every computer language, but it would miss the forest for the trees. Certainly from the very beginning, there'll be some subset of the relatively few people who've actually tried a new language who don't like it for some reason or another, or object on legitimate technical grounds (the border between these two types of objections is murky). As the popularity of the language grows articles are written, starting in the specialized press and (if the language is lucky) ending up even in the popular press, getting even non-technical managers excited and using the newest buzzwords. With time, the recognition and consciousness of the language's deficiencies become more widespread among a wider portion of the programming population, and articles and discussions of such complaints become more widespread. In the end, such complaints may become mere truisms, and the majority of the population just parrot the truisms and stereotypes while having only a superficial or even non-existent familiarity with the language that's criticized. Of course, you could say that such things were going on all along, but it would be missing the broad ebb and flow of language popularity and people's reactions to them.
- burntsushi 9y ago
  Right. I understood that point. I'm saying that I think you're wrong. There has been no ebb and flow from where I'm standing. The criticisms against Go really haven't changed much, and neither have the people making them. On the flip side, Go has been becoming increasingly popular, and I see no signs of it slowing down.
  - pmoriarty 9y ago
    It's not an ebb and flow in the criticisms but in their adoption and the awarness of them in the wider programmer population. It's that awarness that ebbs and flows.

pmoriarty 9y ago

You could say the exact same thing about every computer language, but it would miss the forest for the trees. Certainly from the very beginning, there'll be some subset of the relatively few people who've actually tried a new language who don't like it for some reason or another, or object on legitimate technical grounds (the border between these two types of objections is murky). As the popularity of the language grows articles are written, starting in the specialized press and (if the language is lucky) ending up even in the popular press, getting even non-technical managers excited and using the newest buzzwords. With time, the recognition and consciousness of the language's deficiencies become more widespread among a wider portion of the programming population, and articles and discussions of such complaints become more widespread. In the end, such complaints may become mere truisms, and the majority of the population just parrot the truisms and stereotypes while having only a superficial or even non-existent familiarity with the language that's criticized. Of course, you could say that such things were going on all along, but it would be missing the broad ebb and flow of language popularity and people's reactions to them.

burntsushi 9y ago
Right. I understood that point. I'm saying that I think you're wrong. There has been no ebb and flow from where I'm standing. The criticisms against Go really haven't changed much, and neither have the people making them. On the flip side, Go has been becoming increasingly popular, and I see no signs of it slowing down.
- pmoriarty 9y ago
  It's not an ebb and flow in the criticisms but in their adoption and the awarness of them in the wider programmer population. It's that awarness that ebbs and flows.