Go really does do well in the zero-to-hero case, that’s for certain. Unfortunately it doesn’t fare nearly as well in terms of ease when it comes to continued development.
Is there a language that anyone would say really does fare well for continued development or is it just that few people enjoy maintaining code? I’ve maintained some pretty old Go programs I wrote and didn’t mind it at all. I’ve inherited some brand new ones and wanted to rage quit immediately. I’ve also hated my own code too, so it’s not just whether or not I wrote it.
I have found maintainability is vastly more about the abstractions and architecture (modules and cohesive design etc) chosen than it is about the language.
If I’m going to inherit a large code base to maintain, I’d like Java, C# the most, Python, the least. Go isnt too bad IMO. I’ve not worked with enough Rust code to really judge it. BTW I like Python but lack of types makes refactoring and discoverability harder
Go has a heavy focus on simplicity and ease-of-use by hiding away complexity through abstractions, something that makes it an excellent language for getting to the minimum-viable-product point. Which I definitely applaud it for, it can be a true joy to code an initial implementation in it.
The issue with hiding complexity like such is when you reach the limit of the provided abstractions, something that will inevitably happen when your project reaches a certain size. For many languages (like C/C++, Ruby, Python, etc) there’s an option to - at that point - skip the abstractions and instead code directly against the underlying layers, but Go doesn’t actually have that option.
One result of this is that many enterprise-sized Go projects have had to - in pure desperation - hire the people who designed Go in the first place, just to get the necessary expertice to be able to continue development.
Another reason is kind of a general thing with programming language design: Go, like Java or C, has relatively few concepts in the language and stdlib. This means you’re relatively quick to have seen all of them.
But this also means that for various tasks, these concepts that were left out, would have been the right tool. For example, Go doesn’t have enums.
Generally, it’s still possible to create all possible programs, because of turing-completeness, but it will be more cumbersome and more boilerplate-heavy.
So, as a rule of thumb, the more concepts are provided by the language and stdlib, the more you have to learn upfront, but the less pain you have long-term.
Go is like that abusive partner that gives you flowers and the next day makes you feel like shit. Then another day you go to an expensive restaurant and you tell yourself that maybe it’s not so bad and they just still care. And the cycle continues.
Rust is an autistic partner that sometimes struggles with telling you how much they care, is often overly pedantic about technical correctness and easily gets sidetracked by details, but with some genuine effort from both sides it’s very much a workable relationship.
Add comment