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Comment by naikrovek | Hacker News Reader

The number of Go-haters (for lack of a better term) in here is astounding, to me.

If you don't want to see Go in new code, then don't use Go in new code. There's nothing wrong with this point of view, by the way, (even though it confuses me a bit.)

If you won't use Go because of its current lack of generics, that's a perfectly valid point! Don't use Go. I don't mind AT ALL.

If you don't like Go for whatever reason, then don't use it. Nothing at all wrong with that position.

What I am astounded by is the apparent notion in here that "others need to be made aware my position and brought into agreement with me" - not quoting anyone, just trying to cite a feeling MANY of the comments here are giving me.

Maybe it's the HN culture to do this, or the culture of comment sections in general, I don't know.

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I think it’s just that people have strong opinions about the tools they use, and that network effects in programming make people fear that other people’s choices will be foisted upon them.

Programmers have a strong desire to make things as ideally correct as possible, and that extends to technology choices (perhaps such choices are foundational) and so it can be an affront to one’s sensibilities to see the “wrong” choices being made.

But ultimately we all have different value systems and experiences. What works for us, and more importantly what appears important to us, may be different to others. But that is okay.

My take is that there’s a lot of space for experimentation with different ideas in languages and general approaches to building software. It’s still a very young field. We should keep pursuing lots of different ideas, old and new.

> network effects in programming make people fear that other people’s choices will be foisted upon them.

The hype is the main problem with Go.

It's a practical language but it's mediocre and in no way pushing the boundaries of language theory. Yet it's being sold as a huge leap forward in computer science.

People who are forced to use it by network effect resent the decision is hype-based and not evidence driven.

> it's being sold as a huge leap forward in computer science.

I don't think anyone is selling Go as a huge leap forwards in computer science. It is a huge leap forwards in software engineering though.

It always seemed to be a leap forward in practicality to me.

I need to read a queue, process something, and send a message of the results somewhere else. To do that I need a package for that specific queue, maybe something I'm sending to unless it is plain json, and the standard library. Installation is scp and a HUP.

Where I'm using it, I don't need language theory, I just need to get my work done so I can move on to something interesting.

I did a lot of selling of Go, for years, and my position was that it’s about building an ecosystem that’s a solid basis for software engineering. Not a quantum leap, just sound proven ideas that yield predictable and reliable results.

You use the past tense here. Why did you stop selling?

It just seems like identity politics for programmers.

What I mean by that is that some people think that their own thoughts, feelings and experiences with regard to a language are universally true, and that anyone who disagrees with them is defective in some way.

I’m pretty sure the people that say they won’t use go for new code won’t use go for new code. Not sure what your point is.

Go (like Rust) is not particularly popular ourside the wider HN/SV community.

This is just not true. 2.5 years ago when I was looking for a remote-only go job, I had so many positions to look at, I had to put them in a spreadsheet. None of them were in silicon valley .

Many many places are using go here and there. From start ups to big enterprises.

It's rarely all they do, but it's pretty common to have some backend in go.

I mean, sure, Go is also used elsewhere but it's at least at the moment still tiny in comparison with other languages.

Other than my own experience, I've seen some data that led me to believe that Go is more pervasive than I previously perceived:

    Go started out with a share of 8% in 2017 and now it has reached 18%.
    In addition, the biggest number of developers (13%) chose
    Go as a language they would like to adopt or migrate to.

https://www.jetbrains.com/lp/devecosystem-2019/

Regardless of variance, I wouldn't call 18% tiny. Specially given the trend:

https://jaxenter.com/go-number-one-for-2019-hackerrank-repor...

The same survey claims that Go is more popular than C. I would be interested to know how well the Jetbrains user base represents the overall developer community.

> The same survey claims that Go is more popular than C

None of the two surveys claim that. Feel free to point out where it does.

From the jetbrains link you posted. 18% used Go last year, 17% used C.

Ok so your definition of popular is usage in the last 12 months in this case. And by 1%.

C is a niche low level language. Doesn't surprise me that a higher level language is used more often.

What's SV?

Sillicon Valley ... ?

I guess it is Silicon Valley.

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