I used to be very anti-Go, but I am coming to like it, especially the projects built with it. Nice work!
It's fine if you want a dull language that your junior devs will find hard to shoot themselves in the foot with. It's like a safer C.
I can write a program while drunk or high and I know that I'll get 99% there, on the other hand python, js and C++ let me write basically whatever and it even let me run it.
Of course it has enumerations. It has had them from the get-go. After all, enums are a workaround to help deal with the shortcomings of a basic type system. You're bound to find them anywhere you find a basic type system, which certainly describes Go.
In fairness, there does seem to be some confusion floating around about the difference between enums and sum types, with some mistakenly calling sum types enums. Indeed, Go does not have sum types. This is what languages with more advanced type systems are bound to provide instead. Enums are pointless when you have a more expressive type system.
> Error handling requires lots of boilerplate.
What patterns are you seeing in other languages when it comes to error handling without the boilerplate?
Certainly there are other languages that provide shortcuts when not handling errors, but that's something else entirely.
If err != nil after every fallible function call pales in comparison to being able to choose your own error handling such as automatic bubbling or wrapping that you can do in other languages. Go gives you two options: explicit handle or implicit ignore. There is no other option. The if statements clog up code unnecessarily. Rust does a great job of error handling, but I’d argue that almost every other language including Java does errors better than Go.
You’re thinking of sum types, or at least something like what Pascal has which is a variant on sum types only with support for integer tags.
That’s not a property of enumeration. Enumeration is simply about numbering. Literally the dictionary definition.
Maybe you’re thinking of the new definition that has recently emerged from confused Rust users that’s just another name for sum types? That’s actually sum types, not enumeration, though.
Letting an error bubble up isn’t handling it. Still interested in seeing what other languages are doing to eliminate the boilerplate when handling errors. For some reason you forgot to speak to it…