The best point in time to switch languages are when one of the following things is happening:
* There is a small experiment on the side of the larger system which can be handled in another language. * There is a large project which has failed internally in the business, it is severely behind and nobody thinks it can be solved anyway. The by far best situation is when the sky is falling. This is when you can propose a solution to the problem rather than a language. The solution then proves itself first and then the language decision follows as part of the solution. However, for your situation, analyze the requirements of the project first, then make a real effort to analyze a Python solution against a Go solution. If astrophysicists are likely to grab e.g., numpy to do their image processing loop, it is a hard sell. OTOH, if you have to serve a serious amount of image data then the concurrency of Go is a better choice and so on. Quantify "how many images per minute", "how many concurrent requests", "resource usage" and so on. You could also look for a split solution: process the images in Python, but serve them from Go? To me, the two biggest weaknesses of Python in (industrial) production settings are: * Dynamic typing and no other program modularization leads to programs that are really hard to maintain, especially as they grow. A small machine-learning training script is easy enough to maintain as a work-sheet, but I don't particularly like it for serving said machine-learning model. * Deployment often requires some hoop-jumping. Getting the right software versions built on one machine and deployed on another is IMO living hell for Python programs. My experience is that build pipelines for Python systems often break in subtle ways. Go produces static binaries which are much easier to handle (Other systems doing it right: Haskell, Erlang, OCaml, Elixir, ...) On Wed, Dec 6, 2017 at 2:34 PM Christophe Meessen < christophe.mees...@gmail.com> wrote: > Thanks far all the answers. Sebastien Binet is a colleague and he is > indeed brilliant. > pachyderm looks powerful, but also an overkill for my need. It might scare > my colleagues away. > > Le 06/12/2017 à 12:34, Henrik Johansson a écrit : > > I have a vague memory of +Rob Pike <r...@golang.org> tweeting something > about astronomy or perhaps an observatory a few months ago. > Perhaps there was no programming involved but if so I imagine Go is safe > bet. > > But building pipelines using something like Pachyderm would allow for a > very polyglot "use the tool that fits in each part" approach. > > > ons 6 dec. 2017 kl 11:43 skrev Volker Dobler <dr.volker.dob...@gmail.com>: > >> I know about https://go-hep.org probably Sebastien can elaborate more >> if and how it is used at CERN. >> >> V. >> >> >> On Wednesday, 6 December 2017 10:56:01 UTC+1, Christophe Meessen wrote: >>> >>> Hello, >>> >>> I'm a computer scientist in charge of developing an image processing >>> pipeline for telescope images. >>> It will also have a web server and DB connection. >>> >>> The project is going through reviews by external experts, and the >>> problem I'm facing is that my proposal to use Go is about to be rejected. >>> >>> The main opposing arguments are >>> - everybody uses python in astrophysics >>> - it is very easy to find someone who knows python >>> - risk that I, sole Go programmer, might become unavailable >>> >>> I would have the same arguments if I was project leader and unfamiliar >>> with Go. >>> >>> The counter arguments I found so far are that >>> - Go is simpler and safer than Python >>> - I learned Go in a week-end >>> >>> The problem is that they don't convince people who don't know Go, are >>> not experienced software developers, and don't want to do the due >>> diligence. >>> It's the usual inertia to change. >>> >>> What other arguments could I use ? >>> >>> Do you know other significant scientific experiments that have adopted >>> Go ? >>> >>> >>> >>> I have found this github project. >>> https://github.com/indigo-astronomy/indigo >>> INDI is a well known Python Observatory Control System. >>> INDIGO is its translation into Go. >>> >>> I have also found SciPipe https://github.com/scipipe. >>> It is a Go pipeline framework used in scientific applications. >>> >>> >>> -- >> 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. >> > -- > > You received this message because you are subscribed to a topic in the > Google Groups "golang-nuts" group. > To unsubscribe from this topic, visit > https://groups.google.com/d/topic/golang-nuts/BH4tOlu6df8/unsubscribe. > To unsubscribe from this group and all its topics, send an email to > golang-nuts+unsubscr...@googlegroups.com. > > > For more options, visit https://groups.google.com/d/optout. > > -- > 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. > -- You received this message because you are subscribed to the Google Groups "golang-nuts" group. 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