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Hey guys, I get to talk about Ruby and Go. My name is Lionel Barrow, and I'm a developer at Braintree.
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You guys might have read that Braintree was acquired yesterday. If you want to talk about that, come and see me at lunch.
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One other thing is that I've had a little bit of a cold, so if I start coughing into the mic, I'm sorry.
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Let's talk about Go. Here's the plan: we're going to give a brief overview of Go, discuss what I call the Go agenda, and compare how it works versus Ruby.
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Then we'll conclude with some takeaway thoughts. So, what is Go? Go is a relatively new language, about five years old, although the V1 specification has only been frozen for about 24 months.
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It's a general-purpose language developed primarily at Google, and though it is entirely open source, its core team comprises luminaries like Rob Pike and Ken Thompson.
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Originally marketed as a systems programming language similar to C or C++, many have realized this was a mistake; it should be regarded as a general-purpose language.
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When looking at the categories of programming languages on Wikipedia, you'll find Go listed as compiled, garbage collected, statically typed, and object-oriented.
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While it may sound reminiscent of Java, you'll likely find Go quite different. Go is noted for its first-class concurrency support and a strong emphasis on toolchain.
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It includes features like automatic code formatting and more. While we won't delve into those today, I will note that when Go first came out, it was criticized by many.
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From a programming language research perspective, Go was deemed extraordinarily boring, as all the significant ideas about its semantics and syntax have existed for at least 30 years.
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However, the new features that Go introduces mix together concepts like CSP-style concurrency and an interface-oriented type system, blending them in a very pleasant way.
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If you try it yourself, you'll notice that all the different parts fit together very well. Go is designed by software engineers for software engineering.
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Significant thought has been put into aspects like dependency management, which, while boring from a programming language research perspective, makes a major impact on our daily lives.
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Go is gaining traction—this is the most important way to track how popular a programming language is, but of course, hashtags can be biased.
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Nevertheless, if you logarithmically plot this trend, you can see it's on a steady incline, indicating that Go is doing well.
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The Go language has a clear agenda. It's a small language with a limited number of keywords and ways to accomplish tasks, driving developers down a specific path when writing code.
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You might find that if you approach Go with an open mind, you'll be fine, but it's crucial to remember that it follows a top-down style in its design.
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Unlike Ruby, which has evolved in a bottom-up manner—Ruby has loops that people seldom use—Go aims to push its agenda, encouraging you to embrace its principles.
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So, what is the Go agenda? It focuses on writing code that centers around small, generic packages and emphasizes composing rather than inheritance.
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Notably, Go emphasizes upfront error handling and treats errors as regular data rather than control flow mechanisms like exceptions.
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In this talk, I'll discuss each of these items and compare how Ruby approaches these challenges.
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Let's begin by discussing small generic packages. A package in Go is somewhat like a namespace or module, but differs in that it can hold internal state and execute computations at initialization.
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Though it's not exactly the same as a Ruby module, all Go source code is contained within a package, fundamentally acting as a collection of source files grouped by an identifier.
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Packages are your building blocks in Go, and they require you to think critically about the package API, especially since a name's case dictates whether it can be imported.
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For example, when viewing code, you can immediately recognize if you're dealing with a public or private method simply by its capitalization, a convention enforced by the compiler.
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Here’s what Go code looks like in practice. In the Braintree package, we have two top-level public functions: a charge function that takes a credit card type and an amount string, returning a Boolean.
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We can imagine this Boolean indicates whether the charge was successful, and we also have a credit card struct. Declaring a type like 'credit card struct' is akin to defining a class in Ruby, but here we only set up the attributes.
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Functions or methods associated with those types are defined separately. In this case, both charge and the credit card type are public, allowing anybody importing this package to utilize them.
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However, internal details, such as the card number, remain private, and as a developer, you immediately recognize the nuances when browsing the source code.
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In Go, the main package executes similarly to Java. When looking at our program in the main package, you will notice it imports the Braintree package alongside others.
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Here, the main function retrieves card number and amount from the command line, creates a new credit card instance, attempts a charge, and then generates output based on success or failure.
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Importantly, once we've referenced the type once, we don't have to redeclare it—a feature that reduces verbosity and enhances readability.
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This contrasts sharply with Ruby's 'require' method, which executes a lot of code and can lead to unregistered methods entering the global namespace. Go maintains clarity in where imported code originates.
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While Ruby's flexibility can introduce ambiguity and complexity, Go enforces a more straightforward import structure, avoiding issues like circular dependencies that would otherwise lead to compilation errors.
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Next on the Go agenda is prioritizing composition over inheritance. In Go, composition entails classes coordinating with others, while inheritance relies on a defined mechanism.
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Go's interface-oriented type system plays a key role here; an interface acts as a collection of required methods. Any struct that fulfills the interface's method requirements can be passed into a function that accepts the interface type.
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This encourages packages to remain generic, as they can simply define interfaces to interact with. However, an example showing repetitive interface methods also highlights an area for improvement.
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A better interface exists in the standard library’s io package, allowing for much greater utility, and ensuring that types conforming to it can function seamlessly throughout the library.
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By allowing files and other structures to implement the writer interface, Go facilitates high-level operations while enforcing type safety.
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Like Ruby's duck typing, Go employs a form of compile-time duck typing with explicit interface declarations, ensuring you know at compile time if you’re using an appropriate type.
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In Ruby, interface requirements are implicit, mandating developers to decipher them by reading the code, whereas Go makes its interface requirements explicit.
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Consequently, you can easily reason about what characteristics an interface demands before implementing it, minimizing unexpected behavior.
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Moving on to the agenda item of upfront error handling, this point is often contentious. By treating errors as ordinary data, Go emphasizes the minimization of exceptions for control flow.
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Typically, when calling a function in Go, you receive both a result and an error. You check if the error is NIL; if it is, proceed with the result.
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This practice promotes a straightforward and readable error handling approach, as evidenced by a simple Boolean casting function from the standard library, which wraps potential errors.
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When utilizing this function in a greater context, you may need to focus on either handling the error directly or proceeding with normal function flow based on the error status.
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The result is that Go code remains clean and simple, eliminating complex control flow mechanisms that frequently complicate Ruby codebases.
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Although one downside is the possibility of introducing error checks everywhere, creating surface noise in the code. Developers often end up writing code that looks cluttered with error checks.
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Additionally, it can be difficult to handle errors locally, leading to leaky abstractions. Passing errors up the call stack could mimic exception handling in some respects.
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Despite having different operational meanings, facilities for error handling in Go through Panic exist, albeit their usage is not idiomatic.
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It's critical to acknowledge that programming languages make trade-offs, and learning multiple languages grants insight into the underlying trade-offs.
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Building familiarity with different languages allows developers to see beyond Ruby, enhancing their ability to leverage the appropriate tooling for given projects.
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To sum up, while Go promotes certain ideologies—like simplicity, explicitness in interfaces, and structured error handling—it also introduces verbosity at times.
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Each programming language necessitates a consideration of trade-offs regarding flexibility and verbosity.
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Ultimately, don't shy away from experimenting with new languages. Engaging with other programming paradigms can lead to richer perspectives and improved coding practices.
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As we wrap up, if you want to learn more about Go, I recommend checking out a list of talks on YouTube that cover the essentials and advancements in the language.
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These talks provide insights into Go's design philosophy, its concurrency constructs, and practical applications in building web apps.
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Before I conclude, are there any questions regarding Go or its applications?
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I appreciate your attendance and participation today—thank you!
