Ready, set, go … Google moved into yet another IT realm Tuesday with a computer programming language called Go. Google is betting Go will address key trends in the computing landscape.
“Go combines the development speed of working in a dynamic language like Python with the performance and safety of a compiled language like C or C++,” Google’s Go team said in the company blog. “Typical builds feel instantaneous; even large binaries compile in just a few seconds. And the compiled code runs close to the speed of C. Go lets you move fast.”
Google’s Go Reasoning
Google cited five reasons why a new programming language is needed. First, computers are much faster than they have ever been, but software development has not kept pace. What’s more, Google said, dependency management is a big part of today’s software development, but the header files of languages in the C tradition are antithetical to clean dependency analysis — and fast compilation.
As Google sees it, there is a growing rebellion against cumbersome languages like Java and C++, pushing developers toward dynamic languages such as Python and JavaScript. Google also noted some fundamental concepts such as garbage collection and parallel computation that are not well supported by popular languages, and the emergence of multi-core computers with the worry and confusion they’ve generated among software developers.
“Go is a great language for systems programming with support for multiprocessing, a fresh and lightweight take on object-oriented design, plus some cool features like true closures and reflection,” the Go team said. “Want to write a server with thousands of communicating threads? Want to spend less time reading blogs while waiting for builds? Feel like whipping up a prototype of your latest idea? Go is the way to go!”
Will Developers Grab Go?
Google said it’s possible to compile a large Go program in…