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That's something that makes me afraid to invest more time in learning Go language. What if after investing my time in learning Go, one day I'll see Google blog

by piokoch 13y ago

That's something that makes me afraid to invest more time in learning Go language. What if after investing my time in learning Go, one day I'll see Google blog post saying: "Go lang project at Google is shutting down, we will no longer develop that. But don't worry we decided to donate that project to Apache Software Foundation! It is now called Apache Go. Look for in ASF incubator, just next to Apache Wave (formerly known as Google Wave".

oinksoft 13y ago
Go is not a service, it is a language and runtime with open-source implementations. If Go is worthwhile, it will survive even Google shutting down. I don't see why you would find Go under Apache to be bad news.
- prostoalex 13y ago
  Same argument could be applied to Wave (which also featured an open-source client, server and protocol implementations), or OpenSocial (which also featured an "open" set of standards) and yet without a strong and motivated backer such projects stop feature development and fade into oblivion.
  - justinhj 13y ago
    Almost, except Wave is a specific product that didn't find an audience. Go is a general purpose language and it already has users outside of google to care for it.
  - jlgreco 13y ago
    1) If Google ditched Go, it would hardly be the only open source language without a corporate backer. Languages without corporate backers cannot be said to categorically "stop feature development and fade into oblivion." 2) Nobody gave a shit about Wave or OpenSocial, even when Google was backing them...
  - Torgo 13y ago
    Wave included a bunch of bots to integrate with various services, that did not get open-sourced along with the rest of it.
MatthewPhillips 13y ago
But Go has Rob Pike and Ken Thompson. And a BSD license. I feel like that's as safe as it gets.
- npsimons 13y ago
  Yeah, it's not like it's some patent encumbered, unreasonable and discriminatory PL . . .
- saidajigumi 13y ago
  Motion seconded. As someone who's worked with more languages than I care to count, I think Go really is a great contribution. It's not just that there are big names behind it. I have little doubt that it will stand on its own merits precisely because of how its creators' experience and clarity of purpose manifest in pragmatic language design. FWIW, I'm also really enjoying getting into Rust[1]. At a distance, it's easy to confuse their purposes: both Rust and Go are superficially "new-world systems languages". But the goals and influences of each differ considerably, and this becomes manifest as you dig into them. [1] Caveat: Rust is definitely still in its pre-release lifecycle. As such don't expect to launch your-next-great-whatever to production with it. But it's a great time for language and software enthusiasts to jump in and have fun.
  - MatthewPhillips 13y ago
    One of my biggest problems with Go is that what the authors say it is for and what people using it for are 2 different things. The authors say it is to replace systems languages, and as far as I know they've never retracted that position, whereas in the wild it's being used instead of Python and other similar scripting languages.
    - jlgreco 13y ago
      Why is this problematic? Use it for whatever you think it is good for; don't use it for whatever you think it is bad for.
    - saidajigumi 13y ago
jlgreco 13y ago
I don't understand these complaints at all. GCC has a Go frontend for fuck sake. Google "shutting down" Go makes as much sense as AT&T "shutting down" C++ and C.
wilfra 13y ago
Such is the risk with doing anything on Google these days. G+ will likely eventually be killed off too. Though it may take years. Search, Gmail, Maps, YouTube, Android and Analytics I think are probably safe. Only slightly joking.

by piokoch 13y ago

oinksoft 13y ago

Go is not a service, it is a language and runtime with open-source implementations. If Go is worthwhile, it will survive even Google shutting down. I don't see why you would find Go under Apache to be bad news.

prostoalex 13y ago
Same argument could be applied to Wave (which also featured an open-source client, server and protocol implementations), or OpenSocial (which also featured an "open" set of standards) and yet without a strong and motivated backer such projects stop feature development and fade into oblivion.
- justinhj 13y ago
  Almost, except Wave is a specific product that didn't find an audience. Go is a general purpose language and it already has users outside of google to care for it.
- jlgreco 13y ago
  1) If Google ditched Go, it would hardly be the only open source language without a corporate backer. Languages without corporate backers cannot be said to categorically "stop feature development and fade into oblivion." 2) Nobody gave a shit about Wave or OpenSocial, even when Google was backing them...
- Torgo 13y ago
  Wave included a bunch of bots to integrate with various services, that did not get open-sourced along with the rest of it.

MatthewPhillips 13y ago

But Go has Rob Pike and Ken Thompson. And a BSD license. I feel like that's as safe as it gets.

npsimons 13y ago
Yeah, it's not like it's some patent encumbered, unreasonable and discriminatory PL . . .
saidajigumi 13y ago
Motion seconded. As someone who's worked with more languages than I care to count, I think Go really is a great contribution. It's not just that there are big names behind it. I have little doubt that it will stand on its own merits precisely because of how its creators' experience and clarity of purpose manifest in pragmatic language design. FWIW, I'm also really enjoying getting into Rust[1]. At a distance, it's easy to confuse their purposes: both Rust and Go are superficially "new-world systems languages". But the goals and influences of each differ considerably, and this becomes manifest as you dig into them. [1] Caveat: Rust is definitely still in its pre-release lifecycle. As such don't expect to launch your-next-great-whatever to production with it. But it's a great time for language and software enthusiasts to jump in and have fun.
- MatthewPhillips 13y ago
  One of my biggest problems with Go is that what the authors say it is for and what people using it for are 2 different things. The authors say it is to replace systems languages, and as far as I know they've never retracted that position, whereas in the wild it's being used instead of Python and other similar scripting languages.
  - jlgreco 13y ago
    Why is this problematic? Use it for whatever you think it is good for; don't use it for whatever you think it is bad for.
  - saidajigumi 13y ago

jlgreco 13y ago

I don't understand these complaints at all. GCC has a Go frontend for fuck sake. Google "shutting down" Go makes as much sense as AT&T "shutting down" C++ and C.

wilfra 13y ago

Such is the risk with doing anything on Google these days. G+ will likely eventually be killed off too. Though it may take years. Search, Gmail, Maps, YouTube, Android and Analytics I think are probably safe. Only slightly joking.