6 ms·

DigitalOcean droplet console rewritten in Go

80 points by raiyu 13y ago

ecnahc515 13y ago
Wish it was open source...could use a better VNC console for what we do at my work.
- regecks 13y ago
  I posted on reddit about how you could build this using open-source components: http://www.reddit.com/r/golang/comments/23zjxr/new_super_fast_droplet_console_thanks_golang/ http://www.reddit.com/r/golang/comments/23zjxr/new_super_fas... tl;dr use noVNC in the frontend and the websocket proxy bit is easy.
  - devicenull 13y ago
    noVNC is pretty wonderful. It's weird they reimplemented it in another language.
nodesocket 13y ago
We (https://commando.io https://commando.io) are seriously considering switching to Go for all of our SSH connections. The built in concurrency, bundled with great websocket support, and SSH officially supported as a library (https://godoc.org/code.google.com/p/go.crypto/ssh https://godoc.org/code.google.com/p/go.crypto/ssh) all make it a perfect candidate.
cliveowen 13y ago
"Go’s built in net/http package means we are able to do live deploys and keep on-going development invisible to users." Why is that?
- flaie 13y ago
  I was asking myself exactly the same thing.
- _ak 13y ago
  The only thing I can think of: net/http doesn't hide details but instead allows you to supply your own socket from which to accept connections, which in turns makes it possible to implement zero-downtime restarts with the help of packages such as goagain.
  - flaie 13y ago
    Thank you, I've just checked go again, that's really cool. I'm going to use it.
kintamanimatt 13y ago
What was it formerly written in?
- NateDad 13y ago
  I'd heard they were a heavy perl shop, but that might have been more backend stuff than frontend stuff.
  - kbar13 13y ago
    vnc was previously an annoying java applet iirc
    - ajkumar25 13y ago
      Previously it was written in Perl.
ajkumar25 13y ago
Why is that every large company at-last rewrites their codebase in statically typed language. This makes the newcomers confuse which language one should learn seeing their inspiration change their official language. Is the fate of scripting languages are same in every aspect of programming? Are they really only suitable for rapid prototyping?
- gnur 13y ago
  Because performance matters. And it matters more when trying to scale.
  - ajkumar25 13y ago
    Then why not write in static typed languages from the very beginning itself?
    - uniclaude 13y ago
      Because a lot of people live under the assumption that statically typed languages will slow them down.
      - zimbatm 13y ago
        Which is true for a certain metric. If you just count in terms of amount of text that needs to be written, scripting languages win (in the prototyping phase).
        uniclaude 13y ago
        I'm honestly not sure it holds with expressive languages that use type inference, such as haskell.
    - huxley 13y ago
      Performance is only one of many factors in deciding on a language. Here are some other reasons that occur to me (YMMV): * A language that is great for performance might not lend itself equally well to experimentation or initial implementation (not saying this is the case for Golang, but in my opinion it probably is for other performance-focused languages like C++). * You as a developer might have more expertise in a dynamic language. * The initial development language might have superior OSS libraries which allow you to get to a working application quicker (later you can replace them with your own implementations when you do the rewrite) * Things change. Golang might have been a terrible choice when Digital Ocean was starting up. Golang is definitely reaching a tipping point as a language, but it might have become a dead-end like many other promising languages and where would you be then?
Edmond 13y ago
for anyone who might need a cloud IDE for their DO droplets, I did a short blog post for installing HiveMind(crudzilla.com, I am the dev.): http://blog.crudzilla.com/2014/04/hivemind-on-digital-ocean-droplet.html http://blog.crudzilla.com/2014/04/hivemind-on-digital-ocean-...
WoodenChair 13y ago
Are there any recent Go books that HN would recommend? Everything I see is from 2012 but I'd really like something from 2014 simply because I presume as an uninitiate that the platform is moving quickly.
- huntaub 13y ago
  On the surface, that sounds reasonable. However, the Go platform has been very stable since 2012. Since Go documentation is standardized, learning how to write the language and use a few simple libraries (which a book from 2012 should do) should enable you to work with anything thrown your way.
- jshen 13y ago
  The documentation on the Go site is really good. You don't need much more than that. The early access book from Manning is really good so far (http://www.manning.com/ketelsen/ http://www.manning.com/ketelsen/) but it's only a few chapters finished. After that I find myself reading the source for the code in the standard lib which is well written and relatively easy to follow.
  - WoodenChair 13y ago
    Thanks for the link - Go in Action looks like exactly what I was thinking of!

80 points by raiyu 13y ago

ecnahc515 13y ago

Wish it was open source...could use a better VNC console for what we do at my work.

regecks 13y ago
I posted on reddit about how you could build this using open-source components: http://www.reddit.com/r/golang/comments/23zjxr/new_super_fast_droplet_console_thanks_golang/ http://www.reddit.com/r/golang/comments/23zjxr/new_super_fas... tl;dr use noVNC in the frontend and the websocket proxy bit is easy.
- devicenull 13y ago
  noVNC is pretty wonderful. It's weird they reimplemented it in another language.

nodesocket 13y ago

We (https://commando.io https://commando.io) are seriously considering switching to Go for all of our SSH connections. The built in concurrency, bundled with great websocket support, and SSH officially supported as a library (https://godoc.org/code.google.com/p/go.crypto/ssh https://godoc.org/code.google.com/p/go.crypto/ssh) all make it a perfect candidate.

cliveowen 13y ago

"Go’s built in net/http package means we are able to do live deploys and keep on-going development invisible to users." Why is that?

flaie 13y ago
I was asking myself exactly the same thing.
_ak 13y ago
The only thing I can think of: net/http doesn't hide details but instead allows you to supply your own socket from which to accept connections, which in turns makes it possible to implement zero-downtime restarts with the help of packages such as goagain.
- flaie 13y ago
  Thank you, I've just checked go again, that's really cool. I'm going to use it.

kintamanimatt 13y ago

What was it formerly written in?

NateDad 13y ago
I'd heard they were a heavy perl shop, but that might have been more backend stuff than frontend stuff.
- kbar13 13y ago
  vnc was previously an annoying java applet iirc
  - ajkumar25 13y ago
    Previously it was written in Perl.

ajkumar25 13y ago

Why is that every large company at-last rewrites their codebase in statically typed language. This makes the newcomers confuse which language one should learn seeing their inspiration change their official language. Is the fate of scripting languages are same in every aspect of programming? Are they really only suitable for rapid prototyping?

gnur 13y ago
Because performance matters. And it matters more when trying to scale.
- ajkumar25 13y ago
  Then why not write in static typed languages from the very beginning itself?
  - uniclaude 13y ago
    Because a lot of people live under the assumption that statically typed languages will slow them down.
    - zimbatm 13y ago
      Which is true for a certain metric. If you just count in terms of amount of text that needs to be written, scripting languages win (in the prototyping phase).
      - uniclaude 13y ago
        I'm honestly not sure it holds with expressive languages that use type inference, such as haskell.
  - huxley 13y ago
    Performance is only one of many factors in deciding on a language. Here are some other reasons that occur to me (YMMV): * A language that is great for performance might not lend itself equally well to experimentation or initial implementation (not saying this is the case for Golang, but in my opinion it probably is for other performance-focused languages like C++). * You as a developer might have more expertise in a dynamic language. * The initial development language might have superior OSS libraries which allow you to get to a working application quicker (later you can replace them with your own implementations when you do the rewrite) * Things change. Golang might have been a terrible choice when Digital Ocean was starting up. Golang is definitely reaching a tipping point as a language, but it might have become a dead-end like many other promising languages and where would you be then?

Edmond 13y ago

for anyone who might need a cloud IDE for their DO droplets, I did a short blog post for installing HiveMind(crudzilla.com, I am the dev.): http://blog.crudzilla.com/2014/04/hivemind-on-digital-ocean-droplet.html http://blog.crudzilla.com/2014/04/hivemind-on-digital-ocean-...

WoodenChair 13y ago

Are there any recent Go books that HN would recommend? Everything I see is from 2012 but I'd really like something from 2014 simply because I presume as an uninitiate that the platform is moving quickly.

huntaub 13y ago
On the surface, that sounds reasonable. However, the Go platform has been very stable since 2012. Since Go documentation is standardized, learning how to write the language and use a few simple libraries (which a book from 2012 should do) should enable you to work with anything thrown your way.
jshen 13y ago
The documentation on the Go site is really good. You don't need much more than that. The early access book from Manning is really good so far (http://www.manning.com/ketelsen/ http://www.manning.com/ketelsen/) but it's only a few chapters finished. After that I find myself reading the source for the code in the standard lib which is well written and relatively easy to follow.
- WoodenChair 13y ago
  Thanks for the link - Go in Action looks like exactly what I was thinking of!