From mboxrd@z Thu Jan 1 00:00:00 1970 Date: Tue, 3 Dec 2013 08:02:17 +0000 Message-ID: <20131203080217.Horde.qtGZwN3k1zvdrlwpNrjMhQ1@ssl.eumx.net> From: Kurt H Maier To: Fans of the OS Plan 9 from Bell Labs <9fans@9fans.net> References: <87506b9c5ef509aca4ecab16bf91c228@proxima.alt.za> In-Reply-To: <87506b9c5ef509aca4ecab16bf91c228@proxima.alt.za> User-Agent: Internet Messaging Program (IMP) H5 (6.1.4) Content-Type: text/plain; charset=UTF-8; format=flowed; DelSp=Yes MIME-Version: 1.0 Content-Disposition: inline Subject: Re: [9fans] Go and 21-bit runes (and a bit of Go status) Topicbox-Message-UUID: 90e3acda-ead8-11e9-9d60-3106f5b1d025 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