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Google's new C-like programming language, "Go"

trogdor9trogdor9
edited November 2009 in Technology
Google has released a new open-source programming language with C-based syntax and a few Python-like features called Go. I'm not quite sure how I feel. Thoughts?

Comments

  • theknoxinatortheknoxinator
    Didn't really look at the syntax, since that's not really important for learning languages. Did look at the FAQs, and I'm not particularly impressed. I do get the fact that there haven't been many newer languages created, and there are things that can be done, but Go just seems really restrictive in what it can do. Maybe if it has a significant amount of standard libraries, it would be worth using.
  • lackofcheeselackofcheese
    Maybe if it has a significant amount of standard libraries, it would be worth using.
    Good point. The main thing the biggest languages, like Python, Java, and C++, have going for them is their libraries.
  • AprecheApreche
    The reason Google did this is pretty simple. One is that Python is a great language, and it's great for people to write in. Two is that programs written in python are really slow compared to ones written in C or Java.

    For most people that performance difference is no big deal. For someone as big as Google, even one extra byte on one page can mean a lot of money. Therefore, the relatively slight performance detriment to writing things in Python is a big fucking deal to Google. The creator of Python works for Google, so they really like the language. They just can't afford to spend the CPU cycles.

    This new language, go, allows you to write programs in a style much more similar to Python, without the pain of writing C. However, it still has almost all of the performance of a C program. That is extremely valuable because you can write programs in less time, more pleasure, without a performance hit.
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