Go at Google: Language Design in the Service of Software Engineering

Re:Go at Google: Language Design in the Service of Software ... by paupino_masano on Tuesday December 04, 2012 @08:05PM (#4874310)

I found this article really interesting, though I would like to see more information on the design decisions for the syntax (i.e. types/return types come after). They did say it was easier to parse from a human and computer perspective, however personally (being used to C based languages I guess) I find it a little more difficult to parse. I guess I'd just like to see some references to this rather than insinuation. Anyone have any?

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Re:Go at Google: Language Design in the Service of Software ... by enneff on Tuesday December 04, 2012 @08:05PM (#4874312)

http://blog.golang.org/2010/07/gos-declaration-syntax.html

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Re:Go at Google: Language Design in the Service of Software ... by paupino_masano on Tuesday December 04, 2012 @11:16PM (#4874838)

Excellent - thank you for that.

I'm not sure I completely agree with their reasoning: the example only really got complicated when dealing with function pointers, however that could be simplified with a macro (or a delegate in other languages).

I do agree that C can get complex to read, however I'm not sure switching the type/parameter option is the answer. But then again, I've probably become accustomed to this format. The real test will be using the language for a few weeks... I better start some small hobby projects in Go just to see if I end up liking it!

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Re:Go at Google: Language Design in the Service of Software ... by enneff on Tuesday December 04, 2012 @11:40PM (#4874915)

Go doesn't have macros, as they're a whole other can of worms, so the simplification one might use in C doesn't apply to Go. :-)

Go has great support for closures, so you tend to use function types more often (or perhaps just more naturally) than in C.

It is just a matter of getting used to it. I switch back and forth between Go and other languages, and it doesn't bother me. (The thing that does get me is forgetting to use semicolons in other languages.)

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Re:Go at Google: Language Design in the Service of Software ... by paupino_masano on Wednesday December 05, 2012 @12:31AM (#4875048)

Thanks again, I really appreciate your input! I'm going to have to switch between the two to get a feel for it (and like you say, get used to it). I'm a big fan for language grammars (I enjoy writing them myself) so am looking forward to digging into it some more to see how it all works :)

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Re:Go at Google: Language Design in the Service of Software ... by drivebyacct2 on Tuesday December 04, 2012 @11:35PM (#4874899)

    int *i, j;

is more than a good enough reason for me. Makes interviews interesting, though: "Why are you repeatedly writing your variables and function parameters incorrectly?"

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Re:Go at Google: Language Design in the Service of Software ... by paupino_masano on Wednesday December 05, 2012 @12:40AM (#4875070)

Interesting example. I'm still a newbie to Go, so would that be written as:

  var i int*
  var j int

My apologies if this seems like a simple question: I haven't played with the language enough to know :)

[EDIT: Sorry, I didn't realize how to format code!]

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Re:Go at Google: Language Design in the Service of Software ... by Jabbles on Wednesday December 05, 2012 @05:19AM (#4875671)

The asterisk goes before the type for pointers:

    var i *int

Unlike C, values are always initialized in Go.

http://play.golang.org/p/8tAzKyES2I

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Re:Go at Google: Language Design in the Service of Software ... by nicholassmith on Wednesday December 05, 2012 @06:41AM (#4875860)

I think coming from a C-based language background has the same effect for me, some of the declarations look much more difficult to parse but that could just be from long term exposure to one way of doing things.

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