
Ask HN: As a Python developer are you interested in learning Go? - lcsontos
Hey,<p>May I ask you to help me in my research with some information? I&#x27;m trying to find out which groups of software engineers are interested in the Go programming language. I&#x27;ve been using it for a few years now and heard that mainly Python devs were moving towards it. Is this true in your opinion?<p>I&#x27;ve been thinking about putting a book together about Go which would follow the philosophy of &quot;Learn Code The Hard Way&quot;. Readers would be required to actively participate in creating a fully fledged RESTful back-end application by the end of the book. I wouldn&#x27;t like people to just type pieces of code, but I would rather ask them to work simple problems out with a test case provided. What do you think about this approach?<p>I&#x27;d really appreciate if you gave me some feedback.<p>If you have a minute to fill a formal survey out, that would help me most to have an accurate picture what you guys need and interested in to learn.
Please submit your answer here: http:&#x2F;&#x2F;bit.ly&#x2F;1sGWBs9<p>Many thanks!<p>Cheers,
László
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rgacote
Been writing Python code for about 10 years (C/Pascal/Assembly-style languages
for 20 years prior to that) and was interested in Go for specific advantages:
\- coroutines \- channels \- simple one-file delivery \- cross platform (I
tend to develop on Mac and deploy on Linux or Windows)

After writing Go for about a year now, I'm switching back to Python --
specifically Python 3.5.

My (personal) issues with Go: \- No basic support for NULLs in database
responses (yes, there are third-party modules). \- XML manipulation is a pain.
\- third-party module management problematic. \- poor debugging environment.
Switching back to Python and stepping up to Python 3.5 (and pyInstaller for
single-file builds) addresses all the above pain points, plus introduces
asyncio which is a seriously pleasant way to build asynchronous web/database
applications. Rewrote a 1,000 line Go application in about 300 lines of Python
using asyncio.

In addition to the specifics, writing in Go simply was not enjoyable. A
typical end of the day with Go felt like I'd (usually) gotten the tool to do
what I needed. Contrast that to a typical end of the day with Python feeling
like I'd been using a tool that always supported me.

I'll continue to watch what Go is doing, but I'm back in Python (and playing
with Elixir) for now.

~~~
lcsontos
Thanks for your feedback! I've also heard that devs are tend to move back to
Python after having a journey in Go.

