4 ms·

Yeah far from finding a sweet spot, Go exists in some kind of type system ghetto, because its type system is so crippled users have to resort to code generation

Yeah far from finding a sweet spot, Go exists in some kind of type system ghetto, because its type system is so crippled users have to resort to code generation (go generate). Neither Python nor Java programmers have to do that.

lopatin 9y ago
Yeah Go is weird in that its static type system doesn't to provide you with great static typing power but instead it's just there as a sort-of sanity checker. If there's logic, they say write it with data structures and functions. Have invariants? Enforce them yourself. If Go is annoying with how little power it provides, that's fair, but other type systems can be just as annoying then, because when given the ability to, type astronauts will blast off into space, purely as a matter of honor or instinct. Besides, code generation isn't all that bad. Java programmers will eventually find some kind of code generation in their build setup (serialization/schema tools).
- bjz_ 9y ago
  Yeah, I've noticed that Go APIs are very stringly typed. The APIs are not very self documenting, and it is hard to figure out whether something is nullable or not. Libraries often require you to initialised data in a partially invalid state and the whole thing feels quite error-prone and flaky.
- catnaroek 9y ago
  > Besides, code generation isn't all that bad. It is the number one thing that makes C++ templates unusable: semantics defined by means of code generation.
- namelost 9y ago
  There's nothing wrong if users independently choose to use code generation. However when a programming language starts to rely on it, it becomes a major problem. We've been here before with the C preprocessor. There's nothing wrong with having a preprocessor, but in C it is necessary to use the preprocessor and that causes a lot of problems, like making it especially difficult to write tools.

4 ms·

Yeah far from finding a sweet spot, Go exists in some kind of type system ghetto, because its type system is so crippled users have to resort to code generation

by namelost 9y ago

lopatin 9y ago
Yeah Go is weird in that its static type system doesn't to provide you with great static typing power but instead it's just there as a sort-of sanity checker. If there's logic, they say write it with data structures and functions. Have invariants? Enforce them yourself. If Go is annoying with how little power it provides, that's fair, but other type systems can be just as annoying then, because when given the ability to, type astronauts will blast off into space, purely as a matter of honor or instinct. Besides, code generation isn't all that bad. Java programmers will eventually find some kind of code generation in their build setup (serialization/schema tools).
- bjz_ 9y ago
  Yeah, I've noticed that Go APIs are very stringly typed. The APIs are not very self documenting, and it is hard to figure out whether something is nullable or not. Libraries often require you to initialised data in a partially invalid state and the whole thing feels quite error-prone and flaky.
- catnaroek 9y ago
  > Besides, code generation isn't all that bad. It is the number one thing that makes C++ templates unusable: semantics defined by means of code generation.
- namelost 9y ago
  There's nothing wrong if users independently choose to use code generation. However when a programming language starts to rely on it, it becomes a major problem. We've been here before with the C preprocessor. There's nothing wrong with having a preprocessor, but in C it is necessary to use the preprocessor and that causes a lot of problems, like making it especially difficult to write tools.