Oups forgot to write one question. Will this come with revamped
website instructions/doc for golang too?

On Thu, Jun 17, 2021 at 3:21 PM Ismaël Mejía <[email protected]> wrote:
>
> Huge +1
>
> This is definitely something many people have asked about, so it is
> great to see it finally happening.
>
> On Wed, Jun 16, 2021 at 7:56 PM Kenneth Knowles <[email protected]> wrote:
> >
> > +1 awesome
> >
> > On Wed, Jun 16, 2021 at 10:33 AM Robert Burke <[email protected]> wrote:
> >>
> >> Sounds reasonable to me. I agree. We'll aim to get those (Go modules and 
> >> LICENSE issue) done before the 2.32 cut, and certainly before the 2.33 cut 
> >> if release images aren't added to the 2.32 process.
> >>
> >> Regarding Go Generics: at some point in the future, we may want a harder 
> >> break between a newer Generic first API and and the current version, but 
> >> there's no rush. Generics/TypeParameters in Go aren't identical to the 
> >> feature referred to by that term in Java, C++, Rust, etc, so it'll take a 
> >> bit of time for that expertise to develop.
> >>
> >> However, by the current nature of Go, we had to have pretty sophisticated 
> >> reflective analysis to handle DoFns and map them to their graph inputs. 
> >> So, adding new helpers like a KV, emitter, and Iterator types, shouldn't 
> >> be too difficult. Changing Go SDK internals to use generics (like the 
> >> implementation of Stats DoFns like Min, Max, etc) would also be able to be 
> >> made transparently to most users, and certainly any of the framework for 
> >> execution time handling (the "worker's SDK harness") would be able to be 
> >> cleaned up if need be. Finally, adding more sophisticated DoFn 
> >> registration and code generation would be able to replace the optional 
> >> code generator entirely, saving some users a `go generate` step, 
> >> simplifying getting improved execution performance.
> >>
> >> Changing things like making a Type Parameterized PCollection, would be far 
> >> more involved, as would trying to use some kind of Apply format. The lack 
> >> of Method Overrides prevents the apply chaining approach. Or at least 
> >> prevents it from working simply.
> >>
> >> Finally, Go Generics won't be available until Go 1.18, which isn't until 
> >> next year. See https://blog.golang.org/generics-proposal for details.
> >>
> >> Go 1.17 https://tip.golang.org/doc/go1.17 does include a Register calling 
> >> convention, leading to a modest performance improvement across the board.
> >>
> >> Cheers,
> >> Robert Burke
> >>
> >> On 2021/06/15 18:10:46, Robert Bradshaw <[email protected]> wrote:
> >> > +1 to declaring Golang support out of experimental once the Go Modules
> >> > issues are solved. I don't think an SDK needs to support every feature
> >> > to be accepted, especially now that we can do cross-language
> >> > transforms, and Go definitely supports enough to be quite useful. (WRT
> >> > streaming, my understanding is that Go supports the streaming model
> >> > with windows and timestamps, and runs fine on a streaming runner, even
> >> > if more advanced features like state and timers aren't yet available.)
> >> >
> >> > This is a great milestone.
> >> >
> >> > On Tue, Jun 15, 2021 at 10:12 AM Tyson Hamilton <[email protected]> 
> >> > wrote:
> >> > >
> >> > > WOW! Big news.
> >> > >
> >> > > I'm supportive of leaving experimental status after Go Modules are 
> >> > > completed and the LICENSE issue is resolved. I don't think that 
> >> > > lacking streaming support is a blocker. The other thing I checked to 
> >> > > see was if there were metrics available on metrics.beam.apache.org, 
> >> > > specifically for measuring code health via post-commit over time, 
> >> > > which there are and the passing test rate is high (Huzzah!). The one 
> >> > > thing that surprised me from your summary is that when Go introduces 
> >> > > generics it won't result in any backwards incompatible changes in 
> >> > > Apache Beam. That's great news, but does it mean there will be a need 
> >> > > to support both non-generic and generic APIs moving forward? It seems 
> >> > > like generics will be introduced in the Go 1.17 release 
> >> > > (optimistically) in August this year.
> >> > >
> >> > >
> >> > >
> >> > > On Thu, Jun 10, 2021 at 5:04 PM Robert Burke <[email protected]> 
> >> > > wrote:
> >> > >>
> >> > >> Hello Beam Community!
> >> > >>
> >> > >> I propose we stop calling the Apache Beam Go SDK experimental.
> >> > >>
> >> > >> This thread is to discuss it as a community, and any conditions that 
> >> > >> remain that would prevent the exit.
> >> > >>
> >> > >> tl;dr;
> >> > >> Ask Questions for answers and links! I have both.
> >> > >> This entails including it officially in the Release process, removing 
> >> > >> the various "experimental" text throughout the repo etc,
> >> > >> and otherwise treating it like Python and Java. Some Go specific 
> >> > >> tasks around dep versioning.
> >> > >>
> >> > >> The Go SDK implements the beam model efficiently for most batch 
> >> > >> tasks, including basic windowing.
> >> > >> Apache Beam Go jobs can execute, and are tested on all Portable 
> >> > >> runners.
> >> > >> The core APIs are not going to change in incompatible ways going 
> >> > >> forward.
> >> > >> Scalable transforms can be written through SplittableDoFns or via 
> >> > >> Cross Language transforms.
> >> > >>
> >> > >> The SDK isn't 100% feature complete, but keeping it experimental 
> >> > >> doesn't help with that any further.
> >> > >> Communities grow through contributions and use, and experimental 
> >> > >> markers dissuade users.
> >> > >> There's plenty to do in order expand what can be done with the SDK. 
> >> > >> (Contributions welcome)
> >> > >>
> >> > >> Why Exit Experimental now?
> >> > >>
> >> > >> Typically when we call an SDK or API Experimental, it's because 
> >> > >> there's a risk that API or behaviors may change significantly.
> >> > >> This in turn, leads to additional work for users of the SDK on every 
> >> > >> release which leads to sticking to older versions or forking
> >> > >> to preserve behavior. Version updates should be looked forward to, 
> >> > >> and viewed as having little risk. Further while there's been
> >> > >> previous dicussion about what the "low bar" is for a new SDK, it 
> >> > >> hasn't been summarily applied to the Go SDK. I feel this has
> >> > >> hurt development and contribution of new SDK languages (inherent 
> >> > >> difficulty of SDK development notwithstanding).
> >> > >>
> >> > >> When the SDK was designed, it wasn't entirely clear what the Beam 
> >> > >> Model should look like in an opinionated language like Go.
> >> > >> Their initial take (see https://s.apache.org/beam-go-sdk-design-rfc 
> >> > >> [0]) goes into detail what it means for a language without
> >> > >> Generics, or overloading, or inheritance to implement the beam model. 
> >> > >> One could largely throw away static types (like Python),
> >> > >> but this approach rings hollow for Go. It would not do if the 
> >> > >> approach couldn't grow and scale to the Beam Model. It's also hard
> >> > >> to tell if an API is any good before there are users.
> >> > >>
> >> > >> Further, in the early days of Portability, there wasn't a way to 
> >> > >> write scalable DoFns, dynamically or otherwise. It's an incredible
> >> > >> bottleneck to need to do all initial fanout of work on a single 
> >> > >> machine, write everything to a Reshuffle, just in order to scale up.
> >> > >> Without being able to scale, Beam is little more than overhead.
> >> > >>
> >> > >> At this point, both of these needs are met within the Go SDK for open 
> >> > >> source.
> >> > >>
> >> > >> Background
> >> > >>
> >> > >> The Go SDK has been a part of the beam repo for a few years now, 
> >> > >> since it was accidentally merged into master.
> >> > >> Since then it's been called experimental, and not officially part of 
> >> > >> the releases.
> >> > >>
> >> > >> Of the SDKs, it's was always designed around Beam Portability first. 
> >> > >> It never had any "Legacy" (SDK x Runner specific ) workers.
> >> > >> It's always used the Beam Pipeline protos and FnAPI to execute jobs, 
> >> > >> first with some very experimental code on Dataflow, but now
> >> > >> on all portable supported runners, like Flink, Spark, the Python 
> >> > >> Portable runner, and Dataflow.
> >> > >>
> >> > >> API Stability
> >> > >>
> >> > >> The Go SDK hasn't meaningfully changed it's user API for DoFn and 
> >> > >> pipeline construction since it was first merged in, and there are no
> >> > >> changes to that on the horizon that can't be made in a backwards 
> >> > >> compatible manner. Largely these are related to New Features, or
> >> > >> usability improvements enabled by the advent of Go Generics (think of 
> >> > >> "real" KV, emitter, and iterator types).
> >> > >>
> >> > >> It's an open secret that the Go SDK has largely been under work for 
> >> > >> use within Google. It's use is called FlumeGo, representing
> >> > >> the Apache Beam Go SDK, running on top of Flume, Google's batch 
> >> > >> pipeline processing engine. Thus most of the focus on improving
> >> > >> batch execution. FlumeGo sees ample use today, and there hasn't been 
> >> > >> a call for fundamental changes to the API for ergonomic or
> >> > >> usability concerns.
> >> > >>
> >> > >> Scalability
> >> > >>
> >> > >> Google could get away without the Go SDK having an SDK side 
> >> > >> scalability solution as a result of it's integration with Flume.
> >> > >> However, those days are now past.
> >> > >>
> >> > >> The Go SDK now supports SplittableDoFns along with Dynamic Splitting, 
> >> > >> which supports writing scalable batch transforms natively
> >> > >> in the Go SDK.
> >> > >> The SDK also supports Cross Language Transforms, with Beam Schema 
> >> > >> encodings. With it, production hardened transforms
> >> > >> from Java and Python are a wrapper away.
> >> > >>
> >> > >> Presently, Daniel Oliveira (who implemented the SDF side work, and 
> >> > >> completed the Xlang work,) is adding a wrapper for the
> >> > >> Java Kafka IO using Cross Language Transforms, which is often been 
> >> > >> requested. This will also enable use of the Beam SQL
> >> > >> transforms that java enables.
> >> > >>
> >> > >> Features
> >> > >>
> >> > >> The Go SDK implements the Beam C=core. The Go SDK implements standard 
> >> > >> coders, allows for user DoFns, and CombineFns and access
> >> > >> to core transforms like Flatten, GroupByKey, and features like Side 
> >> > >> Inputs, Windowing, and User Metrics.
> >> > >> Basic windowing will be fully supported for batch even through lifted 
> >> > >> combines in the 2.32.0 release.
> >> > >>
> >> > >> All of the above enables Beam Go to be versatile for batch execution 
> >> > >> on portable runners, and for simple streaming pipelines.
> >> > >>
> >> > >> Repo Testing
> >> > >>
> >> > >> On precommit the Go SDK runs all it's unit tests. On top of that, it 
> >> > >> runs all it's integration tests against the Python Portable runner,
> >> > >> making it quick and robust to detect breaking changes without 
> >> > >> overspending community resources. Those same tests are also
> >> > >> run against Dataflow, Flink, and Spark.
> >> > >>
> >> > >> The tests are executable against all runners via the appropriate Go 
> >> > >> commands (if you've stood up your own job management server),
> >> > >> or Gradle commands (which will spin up runner instances for you). 
> >> > >> Documentation for executing tests and adding new ones
> >> > >> is on the wiki. [2] They are accessible to Go developers as they're 
> >> > >> implemented with the standard Go testing tools.
> >> > >>
> >> > >> Shortcomings
> >> > >> That said, there's still much to do. Let me briefly tell you what 
> >> > >> doesn't work, and it's up to you to weigh whether they block
> >> > >> being out of experimental.
> >> > >>
> >> > >> At present, only a textio has been implemented as Splittable DoFn.
> >> > >> Once the Kafka wrapper is merged in, it will serve as a the first 
> >> > >> example for future contributions for
> >> > >> new transform wrappers for the Go SDK.
> >> > >> Transforms and IOs are lacking, but at this point users are empowered 
> >> > >> to write their own DoFns or wrap existing transforms for Cross 
> >> > >> Language use.
> >> > >>
> >> > >> In the core SDK, more streaming focused features have yet to be 
> >> > >> implemented, but they're largely additions to what exists already
> >> > >> rather than total rebuilds. Much of the work is definining how a user 
> >> > >> specifies their desires, and turning those into the appropriate
> >> > >> FnAPI requests at execution time. Back in October I wrote at length 
> >> > >> on the wiki [1] what's missing for additional streaming features.
> >> > >>
> >> > >> While we have bolstered our testing recently, there's likely still 
> >> > >> more we could test to improve our confidence in the SDK,
> >> > >> in particular regarding the included transforms libraries and 
> >> > >> examples.
> >> > >>
> >> > >> Moving Forward
> >> > >>
> >> > >> My immediate plan is to work on incorporating the Go SDK fully into 
> >> > >> the Beam Programming Guide. I've audited the guide [3], and
> >> > >> am beginning to add missing content and filling in the Go specific 
> >> > >> gaps. This will be tied to improving the Go Doc with more Go
> >> > >> specific user documentation that isn't appropriate for the BPG.
> >> > >> And resolving the LICENSE issue around the public display of that 
> >> > >> GoDoc.
> >> > >>
> >> > >> If this proposal is accepted by a binding vote, I will incorporate 
> >> > >> the SDK into the release process, and remove the "experimental"
> >> > >> language around the SDK. This largely entails updating the release 
> >> > >> scripts to also build and publish the Go SDK Docker containers.
> >> > >> As for releasing the code, we're technically already doing so 
> >> > >> whenever we tag a release branch [4].
> >> > >>
> >> > >> The clearest signal to the Go community however will be migrating the 
> >> > >> SDK to use Go Modules for dependency version control,
> >> > >> which Daniel is planning on working on after his Kafka task. This 
> >> > >> will put our repo infrastructure, SDK contributors, and users
> >> > >> on the same footing when it comes to dependency management. It will 
> >> > >> remove the "+incompatible" tags one sees on the
> >> > >> pkg.go.dev list at [4].
> >> > >>
> >> > >> I'm very happy to answer any questions you might have about the SDK, 
> >> > >> and provide additional links as needed. I intentionally avoided
> >> > >> a link barrage in this email, as they can distract from the point: 
> >> > >> The SDK is ready for folks to use it, we need to tell them that they 
> >> > >> can
> >> > >> rather than they shouldn't.
> >> > >>
> >> > >> Robert Burke
> >> > >> Defacto Beam Go TL
> >> > >>
> >> > >> [0] https://s.apache.org/beam-go-sdk-design-rfc
> >> > >> [1] 
> >> > >> https://cwiki.apache.org/confluence/display/BEAM/Supporting+Streaming+in+the+Go+SDK
> >> > >> [2] https://cwiki.apache.org/confluence/display/BEAM/Go+Tips
> >> > >> [3] 
> >> > >> https://docs.google.com/spreadsheets/d/1DrBFjxPBmMMmPfeFr6jr_JndxGOes8qDqKZ2Uxwvvds/edit?resourcekey=0-tVFwcLrQ2v2jpZkHk6QOpQ#gid=2072310090
> >> > >>  (SDK Audit sheet)
> >> > >> [4] 
> >> > >> https://pkg.go.dev/github.com/apache/beam/sdks/go/pkg/beam?tab=versions
> >> >

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