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It's because Go is a brutalist hipster language - simplicity above utility. Forget a lack of generics, you don't even get proper error messages.
by andy_ppp 8y ago
It's because Go is a brutalist hipster language - simplicity above utility. Forget a lack of generics, you don't even get proper error messages.
- jstimpfle 8y agoIs "hipster" a label you would like to apply to e.g. Russ Cox? Maybe the designers of Go have design goals that are different than what you have in mind. Maybe they don't see it as "simplicity vs utility", but more as "utility through simplicity".
- deleted 8y ago[deleted]
- andy_ppp 8y ago"Hipster: A person who follows the latest trends and fashions, especially those regarded as being outside the cultural mainstream." Yep. Go is a hipster language, even if you don't like it.
- jstimpfle 8y ago"The latest trends"? To me Go is particularly conservative. I don't feel like arguing over a word that has become essentially meaningless over time, but I think you have seriously misunderstood what hipster means or was once supposed to mean. Either that, or you don't really know about Go and are just judging it by its marketing's design aesthetics (Gopher, fonts etc. following a trendy googley style).
- andy_ppp 8y agoGo is trendy and Go is outside of the mainstream in it's minimalist design choices. Are you trying to say that Go is not in fashion and has made mainstream language choices? I think you're just upset about the choice of the word hipster but as with all words it's a shortcut to actual meaning. It was intended with a hint of playfulness and not intended to make you feel bad, even if you don't agree with the choice of word.
- jstimpfle 8y ago> Are you trying to say that Go is not in fashion and has made mainstream language choices? I can't even understand how you can be constructing such a statement. "In fashion" and "mainstream" are pretty synonymous to me. In consequence, the statement is contradictory. Hence, No, I am clearly not trying to say that. > I think you're just upset about the choice of the word hipster No I'm saying that the team behind Go is just really considerate and principled. They don't follow all the latest fads, simply because those fads are the reason why so many other languages suck and projects written in them become giant unmaintainable hairballs. They are engineers (label them conservative if you like). Not hipsters.
- cdelsolar 8y ago"you don't even get proper error messages" - what are you talking about? Have you used Go?
- andy_ppp 8y agoYes. Have you used programming languages with good error messages?
- weberc2 8y agoWhat a bizarre criticism... If anything Go is a ruthlessly utilitarian language; utility above mathematical elegance. I say this as someone who values mathematical elegance. If I want mathematical elegance, I reach for a functional language; if I want to get something done, I reach (sometimes begrudgingly) for Go (and occassionally Python or JavaScript/TypeScript).
- jstimpfle 8y agoI even think that this utility (to me, it is synonymous with the simplicity from which it comes) has actual mathematical elegance. Whereas functional languages I find not particularly elegant once they hit the real world, must run on real machines etc. It gets ugly, complicated, or slow, really quick.
- weberc2 8y agoI agree, but it’s a different kind of elegance that is likely to be foreign to many folks in this thread, and I didn’t want to broach the distinction in this thread.