alt Hacker NewsAt this stage to me Go is the new C compiler. Quite honestly I spent 10 years or more writing Go code. At times 18 hours a day. And now with AI, I get models to write my Go code. I STILL want it to be Go code. Is that strange? No because I understand the performance and safety of Go. But I rarely write it directly anymore. Probably not at all in 6-9 months. Yet I still occasionally look at the code to see what the output looks like.
So yea hopefully a nice new addition but only my prompts now matter. So need to make sure they pickup on the new API.
Replies
This is mostly why I have come back to Go.
I am using local LLMs and Go has a bunch of strengths where smaller contexts are concerned; less complicated flow of control being one of them.
Go is lovely. Best language to generate backend services with.
Truly the argument can be made either way.
If you code in Go, the code is more high level, prettier, simpler.
If you code in Rust, the code is more robust, efficient, faster.
Both are important for LLM, why can't we have a high level, simple language that is also robust, efficient and fast? =)
I still prefer Go over the alternatives because I'm reviewing the code carefully and trying to make it all look as good as if I'd written it very carefully by hand.
The few times I've needed a language without a GC and used Rust and C as target languages, I've reviewed the code less and enjoyed it less.
As I do more agentic coding, I am starting to feel strongly that I need to set aside a project -- and time -- for strictly hand-coding, using AI (if at all) only to explain things, never to write any code.
First, I like programming and don't want to stop doing it just because a machine can do it too. Second, I'm pretty sure atrophied coding skills will make me worse at directing the machines, thus worse at what seems to be "the job" these days.
Which are your favorite models for writing Go? Any models for editing/improving written documentation?
People are sleeping on Go as a LLM language of choice. Everyone trying to rewrite in rust which is fine and rust is fine. However its compile times are several orders of magnitude greater than Go. You can have LLMs write and compile 20 apps in the time one rust app compiles. I've got a Go personal project that would take hours for rust to compile, I can't imagine making the same velocity in Rust. Though I do see the workplace appeal of bringing back the xkcd "compiling" meme.
However it kind of makes me feel like my professional life was wasted and I don't really know what kind of future I have. One of Go's main points was you can pick it up in a weekend. What career moat do people like us have?
> At times 18 hours a day
I hope you're not still doing this, it's nothing to brag about.