> the fact that builtin functions have special powers doesn't strike me as particularly unusual. If they didn't I presume they'd just be part of the standard li

> the fact that builtin functions have special powers doesn't strike me as particularly unusual. If they didn't I presume they'd just be part of the standard library. It strikes me that the primary expectation of a built-in function is not having to import anything, and not having to namespace-qualify it on use. It circumventing the type system IS a surprise. In Go, I believe not only generic-ness appears, but also overloading. Go as a complete package is very cool, though! I think the reason its warts get brought up disproportionately often is a reaction to its evangelists going a bit overboard in claims of simplicity/orthogonality.