Re: [9fans] Go and 21-bit runes (and a bit of Go status)

[Kurt H Maier <khm@sciops.net>]

Quoting lucio@proxima.alt.za:

> Stop being sarcastic and you may stop seeing defensiveness and
> hilariousness, too.

Please identify the sarcasm.

> As for the Go-vs-Python issue, (a) Python was
> latest-"language-cum-fashion-accessory" itself not too long ago and
> (b) enough has been written about it elsewhere by more competent
> people than myself; I'm sure you can refer to that literature rather
> than expect me to botch a description here.

(a) that's why I bring it up and (b) no, it hasn't.  I have not been able
to discern why people are excited about Go; that is why I asked the
question.  As far as I can tell, Go is just a de-facto web programming
language, in direct lineage from perl through python.  If that's all the
"there" there, then I'll just ignore it instead.  If there's something
more to be said for it, I would like to know.

Right now I get a bunch of hand-waving from everyone I ask, while some
people mutter about having a lot of libraries available -- as though
anything could compete with CPAN... but we don't see anyone helping get
perl a leg up.  So there has to be something capturing peoples interest.
I'm just trying to ascertain what.

> I guess you would not like me to read "for COMPANY=Google shift span"
> in the above, but I did and others probably too.  The challenge is out
> there, $COMPANY does not want to allocate funding to the Plan 9 port
> of Go and Plan 9 and Dragonfly BSD have been found wanting with regard
> to the support needed by the developers to get their work done.  That
> has caused the entry bar to be raised and I believe that is fair, if
> inconvenient.

Google is not the first company to ride some fashion show into a bunch
of free work from programmers; they won't be the last.  I've seen similar
flurries of wild-eyed excitement about software from Sun and Nokia and
many others.  They all petered out into silence.  What makes this one
different?  This is an actual serious question; someone please answer
it.

The reason I typed '$COMPANY' instead of 'Google' was to indicate that
my statements were more generalized and not directly or uniquely about
Google.  I cannot believe that I have to explain this basic convention.

> If you can contribute resources to the project, we may all be
> grateful, but if they come with strings attached such as the need to
> tolerate your sarcasm, I suspect some of us may well prefer to refuse
> them.

Again, would rectify the sarcasm if there were any.  Instead I asked a
series of simple questions and got shit on for my interest.  You might
want to relax a bit.

khm