> Yes, I run Go on native Plan9,
Go breaks away from a number of traditions that have long become
obsolete and that is its main merit. The price is not only in having
to adjust to the change, but also in some sacred cows being
slaughtered in the process.
But Go also opens the door to better ways of doing things. The build
system, raw as it still is, is streets ahead of any conventional build
system, but it is tightly coupled to the language. Portability across
platforms is much easier, in the Plan 9 tradition, but requires a set
of build tools ([568][ac]) that users are not familiar with and [568]l
becomes the new bottleneck, to many users' surprise.
Cross-development - my favourite feature - becomes much easier, but I
am having a great deal of trouble getting my head around all the
complications it brings with it.
Philosophically, Plan 9 has rattled the proverbial cage and Go is an
earthquake by comparison. The outcome is still to be evaluated. But
not everyone is going to see it in the same way.
Of relevance here is that if Rob and Russ and Ken had let
considerations such as pampering slow hardware, we'd have a different
language and many features would not be available. At the same time,
the need for a slim version of Go will grow with acceptance of the fat
model and then people like Kurt may be inspired to restore in the
linker the ability to trim libraries of unused modules (don't hold
your breath!).
If the Go developers had started from the other end, as I would have
been tempted to do, the outcome would definitely look nothing like
what we have.
The nice bit is that there are enough people out there to consider
such options and some of them are actually willing to publish their
efforts.
The people who insists that ONE tool should encompass all these
options are those who are too unproductive to do it themselves and
fail to see that no-one owes them.
In my other life managing a backpackers, I see way too many young
people who seem to think that our generation somehow owe them
something they are able but not willing to seek for themselves. I
could tell you where most of them seem to come from, but I'm sure that
would be unfair to all those they leave behind while spending money
they did not earn to travel in comfort around the world.
++L
PS: Gorka is making amazing progress with the plan9/arm port and the
reason I know is that I've just tested his latest efforts on the
Sheevaplug and the present obstacle does not seem unsurmountable -
but it is very real, so "it's not working yet". Watch golang-dev
on Google Groups for updates.
