Communications of the ACM
Google's C Alternative Gets an Update, but Will Developers Bite?
Google has released version 1.2 of its Go open source programming language, designed to improve on certain aspects of languages similar to C.
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Google this week released version 1.2 of its Go open source programming language, which the company initially released four years ago as an alternative to C. Go was designed to improve on certain aspects of languages similar to C by leveraging multicore processors and offering modern language features such as dynamic typing. Furthermore, Go compiles rapidly with high performance.
Google notes that "no major systems language has emerged in over a decade, but over that time the computing landscape has changed tremendously." Despite Go's reported benefits, its potential popularity among developers remains uncertain. Since Go's initial release in 2009, the language has not caught on significantly outside of Google enclaves. As with all new programming languages, Go faces the challenges of developers questioning language mutability, the risk involved in committing to something new, and the company's commitment to the project.
Companies that have used Go in high-profile production contexts offer favorable feedback. Iron.io, for example, used Go to consolidate about 30 servers down to two, while Bitly and Braintree Payment Solutions also were impressed with what they accomplished using Go.
From InfoWorld
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