points by win311fwg 3 days ago | 0 comments
Nobody is keen about language features. Each new one adds complexity. That isn't the same as failing to recognize a need, though. And we know the Go team recognized the need as they clearly kept working on generics all the way from the very beginnings up until the Haskell muscle showed up. The receipts are there. The results just weren't good, as one would expect from a team who weren't shy to say that they didn't have the expertise necessary.
You'd think one of the HN experts would have shown up to offer that expertise, but I guess there was a lot of "go doesn't have generics lol" needing to get out.
[–] pjmlp 3 days ago
[–] win311fwg 3 days ago
The same people who were working on generics in Go prior to v1 were also still there to help out when it eventually landed, so whatever stones, clubs, and pitchforks you saw weren't compelling enough to scare one away from making it happen. Not that anyone would expect them to. Meaningless distractions don't get in the way when doing something is worthwhile.
But obviously "go doesn't have generics lol" comments on HN were even more important. Just think of what would have happened if that wasn't repeated multiple times daily for years and that effort was put into getting Go generics into place much sooner. Count your lucky stars or something.
[–] pjmlp 2 days ago
To offer help, the receiving end must be open to take it.
[–] win311fwg 2 days ago
And there was plenty of effort given by others who also weren't experts. There was no lack of trying within a sea of incapable people. Unfortunately, that wasn't what the project needed. It already had a team full of blub developers, it being a language for them.
[–] pjmlp 2 days ago
It is after all a language designed for not smart people, as per Rob Pike own words.
The Haskell muscle had proven their skills already with Featherweight Java, in 2006.