8 ms·

PayPal hardware powered by Go

78 points by SriniK 13y ago

Baliw 13y ago
Awesome! It's great to see more large companies doing projects in Go.
- joshbaptiste 13y ago
  What's even more awesome is that this is an embedded arm device where usually C/lua has rank.
  - pjmlp 13y ago
    Even with my famous design issues with Go, I find this project quite interesting. The only way to move embedded development into safer languages is with real products developed in such languages, otherwise the hardcore C guys will never be convinced. It cannot be generalized for all types of embedded hardware projects for sure, but the use of C, C++ and Assembly should be reduced to the bare minimum type of projects where no other technology is possible.
    - sanderjd 13y ago
      This project is super cool, but I'm even more hopeful for Rust eventually being a much more complete replacement for C++ and even C for embedded projects. It's already pretty easy to run outside the runtime by not using the standard library[0], though you can't take advantage of a lot of Rust's niceties if you do so. There's discussion of what it might mean to have the standard library but not the runtime[1], which could be really nice for embedded projects. 0: https://github.com/mozilla/rust/blob/master/src/test/run-pass/smallest-hello-world.rs https://github.com/mozilla/rust/blob/master/src/test/run-pas... 1: https://mail.mozilla.org/pipermail/rust-dev/2013-August/005194.html https://mail.mozilla.org/pipermail/rust-dev/2013-August/0051...
      - pjmlp 13y ago
        There are Pascal dialects, Ada and Oberon compilers for embedded systems, but sadly never got much traction in the industry.
    - sanderjd 13y ago
      This project is super cool, but I'm even more hopeful for Rust eventually being a much more complete replacement for C++ and even C for embedded projects. It's already pretty easy to run outside the runtime by not using the standard library[0], though you can't take advantage of a lot of Rust's niceties if you do so. There's discussion of what it might mean to have the standard library but not the runtime[1], which could be really nice for embedded projects. 0: https://github.com/mozilla/rust/blob/master/src/test/run-pass/smallest-hello-world.rs https://github.com/mozilla/rust/blob/master/src/test/run-pas... 1: https://mail.mozilla.org/pipermail/rust-dev/2013-August/005194.html https://mail.mozilla.org/pipermail/rust-dev/2013-August/0051...
phdtree 13y ago
Great! We at phdtree are considering switching from Python/Django to Go: http://phdtree.org http://phdtree.org
- jotux 13y ago
  Yes, blatant spam is a great way to promote your project.
  - MetaCosm 13y ago
    Yes, finally the riches a "not-for-profit, just-for-fun Wiki project" deserve will finally start rolling in! The only thing holding them back now is the amount of spamming they can do.
  - sanderjd 13y ago
    sigh I hadn't heard of phdtree, and was interested that they were considering moving from python to go. I totally see your point, but this forum is at its most useful to me when I'm hearing about software projects and the tech they're being built with, and sometimes self-promotion is in service of that.
    - jotux 13y ago
      By this sentiment would it be acceptable for phdtree to go to every article on hn that mentions golang and post an identical comment with a link to their project? If I have a project written in js should I post a link in articles mentioning js with, "Hey, my project is also using js: www.myproject.com!"?
      - sanderjd 13y ago
        Clearly not - have they done that? Javascript is a bad analogy because of its prevalence and entrenchment. Perhaps a better way for me to have put my sentiment would have been, "I'm not tired of this, so I don't mind seeing it", where "this" means both phdtree specifically and hearing about project being written in, moving to, or considering moving to Go in general. Clearly you are tired of it, either from having seen other specific phdtree postings or from having seen more postings about Go in general than you care to. That's fine, but it's not where I'm at.
f2f 13y ago
excerpt from the author on go-nuts: "Writing in Go continues to be the best part of an all-around very interesting project."
chrischen 13y ago
This Beacon device seems to be a wifi scanner detecting mac addresses of wireless phones... if it is using this technique, then it will not work with iOS 7 phones, as Apple has blocked the MAC address from the API.
chatman 13y ago
Nowadays, doing just about anything in Go makes it HN worthy.
- quaunaut 13y ago
  It's a language that excites a lot of people. You get performance that isn't far off the mark of C++ or Java, while also not being that much more difficult than Python or Ruby, and as an added bonus, concurrency is a snap.
  - patrickg 13y ago
    ... plus you get a (output) binary with very few dependencies, easy cross compiling, nice tool chain (go fmt is great) and much more that are good arguments (for me) to use go.
    - pjmlp 13y ago
      ... which is possible in lots of languages.
  - locofacetwice 13y ago
    I don't see how Go is easier than C++. It's nothing like Ruby or Python IMO.

78 points by SriniK 13y ago

Baliw 13y ago

Awesome! It's great to see more large companies doing projects in Go.

joshbaptiste 13y ago
What's even more awesome is that this is an embedded arm device where usually C/lua has rank.
- pjmlp 13y ago
  Even with my famous design issues with Go, I find this project quite interesting. The only way to move embedded development into safer languages is with real products developed in such languages, otherwise the hardcore C guys will never be convinced. It cannot be generalized for all types of embedded hardware projects for sure, but the use of C, C++ and Assembly should be reduced to the bare minimum type of projects where no other technology is possible.
  - sanderjd 13y ago
    This project is super cool, but I'm even more hopeful for Rust eventually being a much more complete replacement for C++ and even C for embedded projects. It's already pretty easy to run outside the runtime by not using the standard library[0], though you can't take advantage of a lot of Rust's niceties if you do so. There's discussion of what it might mean to have the standard library but not the runtime[1], which could be really nice for embedded projects. 0: https://github.com/mozilla/rust/blob/master/src/test/run-pass/smallest-hello-world.rs https://github.com/mozilla/rust/blob/master/src/test/run-pas... 1: https://mail.mozilla.org/pipermail/rust-dev/2013-August/005194.html https://mail.mozilla.org/pipermail/rust-dev/2013-August/0051...
    - pjmlp 13y ago
      There are Pascal dialects, Ada and Oberon compilers for embedded systems, but sadly never got much traction in the industry.
  - sanderjd 13y ago
    This project is super cool, but I'm even more hopeful for Rust eventually being a much more complete replacement for C++ and even C for embedded projects. It's already pretty easy to run outside the runtime by not using the standard library[0], though you can't take advantage of a lot of Rust's niceties if you do so. There's discussion of what it might mean to have the standard library but not the runtime[1], which could be really nice for embedded projects. 0: https://github.com/mozilla/rust/blob/master/src/test/run-pass/smallest-hello-world.rs https://github.com/mozilla/rust/blob/master/src/test/run-pas... 1: https://mail.mozilla.org/pipermail/rust-dev/2013-August/005194.html https://mail.mozilla.org/pipermail/rust-dev/2013-August/0051...

phdtree 13y ago

Great! We at phdtree are considering switching from Python/Django to Go: http://phdtree.org http://phdtree.org

jotux 13y ago
Yes, blatant spam is a great way to promote your project.
- MetaCosm 13y ago
  Yes, finally the riches a "not-for-profit, just-for-fun Wiki project" deserve will finally start rolling in! The only thing holding them back now is the amount of spamming they can do.
- sanderjd 13y ago
  sigh I hadn't heard of phdtree, and was interested that they were considering moving from python to go. I totally see your point, but this forum is at its most useful to me when I'm hearing about software projects and the tech they're being built with, and sometimes self-promotion is in service of that.
  - jotux 13y ago
    By this sentiment would it be acceptable for phdtree to go to every article on hn that mentions golang and post an identical comment with a link to their project? If I have a project written in js should I post a link in articles mentioning js with, "Hey, my project is also using js: www.myproject.com!"?
    - sanderjd 13y ago
      Clearly not - have they done that? Javascript is a bad analogy because of its prevalence and entrenchment. Perhaps a better way for me to have put my sentiment would have been, "I'm not tired of this, so I don't mind seeing it", where "this" means both phdtree specifically and hearing about project being written in, moving to, or considering moving to Go in general. Clearly you are tired of it, either from having seen other specific phdtree postings or from having seen more postings about Go in general than you care to. That's fine, but it's not where I'm at.

f2f 13y ago

excerpt from the author on go-nuts: "Writing in Go continues to be the best part of an all-around very interesting project."

chrischen 13y ago

This Beacon device seems to be a wifi scanner detecting mac addresses of wireless phones... if it is using this technique, then it will not work with iOS 7 phones, as Apple has blocked the MAC address from the API.

chatman 13y ago

Nowadays, doing just about anything in Go makes it HN worthy.

quaunaut 13y ago
It's a language that excites a lot of people. You get performance that isn't far off the mark of C++ or Java, while also not being that much more difficult than Python or Ruby, and as an added bonus, concurrency is a snap.
- patrickg 13y ago
  ... plus you get a (output) binary with very few dependencies, easy cross compiling, nice tool chain (go fmt is great) and much more that are good arguments (for me) to use go.
  - pjmlp 13y ago
    ... which is possible in lots of languages.
- locofacetwice 13y ago
  I don't see how Go is easier than C++. It's nothing like Ruby or Python IMO.