Re:Linux Namespaces and Go Don't Mix
by vishvananda on Friday June 02, 2017 @01:09PM
(#14471550)
I agree that rust will have an adoption problem amongst part-timers. Rust code is unreadable until you spend a few days with it and writing it requires a week or two of wrestling with the borrow checker.
In contrast, one of the reasons I'm a big fan of go is it is extremely easy to read for almost anyone. People pick it up very quickly.
I can only speak about my own experience as an ops person, but C++ always just felt off to me for some reason. I tried to learn and use it for about 6 months and I always felt like I was so bogged down in minutia and standards.
C let's me focus on the underlying system and it is what Linux is written in, Python is quick to write and has great libraries, and Go is amazingly easy to pick up/read.
C++ always felt like it was more so a language designed for programmers who love code than something that lets me focus on what I love (systems).
Better C++ than Go or Rust. Antecedents and track record counts. Young people like the new thing. Go and Rust are capitalizing on that. Learn C. Take the time..it takes a
couple years and some pain to learn it and then you will be amply rewarded. These languages (go|rust) are reactive and suffice for some purposes but they really kind of suck in every other possible way.
I'm old(ish), have worked professionally with C, and I think I have to disagree with you. Certainly, learn some C; it's the language on which all of our platforms are currently built.
But, building new things in C? Nah. I don't see any reason for that. Since C was designed, we've ("we" as in our industry, not specifically me and you) learned a lot and our systems have grown massively in all dimensions. It would be optimistic to assume we don't need different tools 40+ years on.
I think C++ may just be too rich a language to be a part-time thing. I think Rust might have the same problem (though I'm finding it easier to read than C++, it doesn't seem to be afraid to require a lot of learning time from its developers). But, I'm willing to entertain other theories.
For whatever reason, Go seems to have very quickly entered that category of language that systems and ops people are comfortable with.