On Saturday, December 2, 2017 at 11:57:58 PM UTC-7, Ian Lance Taylor wrote: > > On Sat, Dec 2, 2017 at 11:37 AM, <hughag...@gmail.com <javascript:>> > wrote: > > > > Google is not going to be happy if somebody uses Go to compete against > > Google. > > I think that Go is a nice language, but it's not so nice that it would > make any difference whether a Google competitor used Go or used some > other language. Google does not compete at the level of programming > language choice. >
Did Go or Rust come first? I'll bet if Mozilla had used Go to write FireFox, rather than invent their own language, Google would have done something to stop them. Also, Go could be used to write an OS that is secure from NSA snooping. According to Edward Snowden, Google makes money from the NSA --- and money talks! There was another thread earlier comparing Rust and Go --- that thread didn't go anywhere though. Threads comparing two languages tend to devolve into: "my language can beat up your language" --- I would be interested in reading an objective comparison though. Isn't it true that both languages would be good choices for OS development targeting multi-core processors? > Most likely, Google made Go public because they wanted enthusiastic > > contributors to help them develop Go --- hiring programmers is > expensive. > > After Go is settled though, Google may make it proprietary again. The > > enthusiasts will succeed so well that no further contribution from them > is > > needed. > > The Go team released Go as open source because proprietary programming > languages make no sense. Since all programming languages have > equivalent power, proprietary languages bring you no advantage. It > would never make sense for Google to make some new version of Go > proprietary. > By proprietary I didn't necessarily mean closed-source. I just meant that Google declares a crippleware version of Go to be the Standard --- possibly pushing it through ANSI so it is written in stone. Even if there is an open-source version of Go that works well, it would likely die out for lack of interest. Being the Standard (with a capital 'S') carries a lot of weight. Novices just chose the Standard --- they don't want to get embroiled in an esoteric technical argument. If the argument is between an elephant and a mouse, they choose the side that is least likely to get squashed, and Google is the elephant. Most people learning a new language just want yet-another skill listed on their resume --- this only works with a Standard language. If I develop my TOYF processor, nobody is going to learn TOYF programming because they want to list this skill on their resume. TOYF means "Toy Forth" --- people will learn it because it is fun --- a few pick up on the TOYF for commercial use, if it is less-expensive and faster than the MSP430. I wrote MFX for the MiniForth (now called RACE) processor in 1994. This doesn't do anything for my resume --- non-standard programming is an anti-accomplishment. If I had a resume, it would be better to list novice-level Go rather than expert-level Forth --- I would be more likely to actually get hired somewhere. I don't have a resume --- I just program for fun --- I'm not an expert at anything other than Forth, which has been quite dead since 1994. Anyway, I'm not going to worry about Go getting killed --- it hasn't happened yet. Even if it does happen, the situation is unlikely to go so badly as it did in Forth. Right now we have a standard for Go that a lot of people are happy with. By comparison, in Forth we never had a standard that anybody was happy with --- we had balkanization from day one --- useful features have always been non-standard. Another difference is that Forth is primarily useful as a language for soft-core processors --- the primary feature of soft-core processors is customizability. If the processor is going to be customized in every application, the concept of a standard is meaningless anyway. Go is a high-level language used on big processors such as the x86 and ARM Cortex --- they don't get customized --- they are their own standard. -- You received this message because you are subscribed to the Google Groups "golang-nuts" group. To unsubscribe from this group and stop receiving emails from it, send an email to golang-nuts+unsubscr...@googlegroups.com. For more options, visit https://groups.google.com/d/optout.
