This repository is a list of articles that complain about golang's imperfection.
Seems like complaining about go's flaws is becoming a trend. Any newbie must have a chance to read all the go-is-bad arguments before they go too far. So here it is.
This repo is not aimed to offend or insult someone (at least not more than each author does it in its article), especially golang itself, its authors and the community. It is for educational purpose only. Any contributor can have an absolutely different point of view.
I don't think anyone would deny that go has weaknesses: it certainly has. But how do you know, is it really a language design flaw or is it just you, doing something completely wrong? This list here to help you quickly answer the question.
You're writing some code. And suddenly you understand you need something that language can't give you. You go here and check if you're the one with that issue or not. If it's a common issue, it'll be here. Then you decide what to do: choose another tool for your task or go find a better solution or a workaround.
- https://cowlark.com/2009-11-15-go/ (David Given, 2009)
- c-style
- poor design
- no constructors
- no user-type iteration
new
andmake
instead of one- stuck in 70's
- no OOP
- too simple / lack of syntactic sugar
- https://dzone.com/articles/i-don%E2%80%99t-much-get-go (Jon Davis, 2010)
- no language interoperability (only C)
- no versioning model
- no OOP
- has pointers
- no semicolons at line endings
- no
this
- no function/operator overloading
- no exceptions
- https://uberpython.wordpress.com/2012/09/23/why-im-not-leaving-python-for-go/ (Yuval Greenfield, 2012)
- error handling
- stuck in 70's
panic
instead of exceptions
- http://www.darkcoding.net/software/go-lang-after-four-months/ (Graham King, 2012)
- un-googlable name
- stuck in 70's
- no exceptions
- is compiled
- too young
- http://ridiculousfish.com/blog/posts/go_bloviations.html (ridiculousfish, 2012)
- c-style
- no unused imports
- bad unicode support
- no asserts
- http://magicmakerman.blogspot.ru/2013/07/why-googles-go-programming-language.html (Magic Maker Man, 2013)
- no OOP
- no asserts
- has pointers
- weird mascot (gopher)
- http://how-bazaar.blogspot.ru/2013/04/the-go-language-my-thoughts.html (Tim Penhey, 2013)
- error handling
- inconvenient
range
- no generics
- http://corte.si/posts/code/go/go-rant.html (Aldo Cortesi, 2013)
- too opinionated
- http://blog.mattbasta.com/things_that_make_me_sad_in_go.html (Matt Basta, 2014)
- project layout is bad
- can't import packages relatively
- different build approaches
- no sugar for slices
- lack of basic data structures
- https://rule1.quora.com/Golang-Not-yet (Jordan Zimmerman, 2014)
- no decent IDE
- GOPATH is a mess
- pointers are a mess
- upper-case/lower-case scoping is bad
- hidden types
- immature GC
- hard to extend
- no exceptions
- no generics
- bad dependency management
- http://yager.io/programming/go.html (Will Yager, 2014)
- no generics
- no function/operator overloading
- nil as a failure marker
- type inference is too simple
- no immutables
- no pattern matching
- https://www.upguard.com/blog/our-experience-with-golang (Mark Sheahan, 2014)
- no decent IDE
- error handling
- unexpected variable shadowing
- no generics
- not-so-obvious slices behaviour
- http://dtrace.org/blogs/wesolows/2014/12/29/golang-is-trash/ (Keith Wesolowski, 2014)
- the worst compiler toolchain ever
- psuedointellectual arrogance of Rob Pike and everything he stands for
- confusing and undebuggable
- http://www.yinwang.org/blog-cn/2014/04/18/golang (Wang Yin, 2014)
- confusing/stupid syntax
- immature toolchain
- immature GC
- no generics
- multiple return values have no type checking
- cumbersome interface
- goroutine is not original and revolutionary
- defer is abused
- stuck in Unix thinking
- summary: not elegant as Python, not strong as Java
- https://kaushalsubedi.com/blog/2015/11/10/golang-sucks-heres-why/ (Kaushal Subedi, 2015)
- no generics
- slow json parsing
- bad dependency management
- no subpackages
- http://spaces-vs-tabs.com/4-weeks-of-golang-the-good-the-bad-and-the-ugly/ (Freddy Rangel, 2015)
- not-so-obvious slices behaviour
- error handling
- hard to test, hard to mock
- http://www.evanmiller.org/four-days-of-go.html (Evan Miller, 2015)
- no unused imports
- too opinionated
- poor std math lib
- weird mascot (gopher)
- http://nomad.so/2015/03/why-gos-design-is-a-disservice-to-intelligent-programmers/ (Gary Willoughby, 2015)
- too simple / lack of syntactic sugar
- no generics
- bad dependency management
- stuck in 70's
- http://tmikov.blogspot.com/2015/02/you-dont-like-googles-go-because-you.html (Tzvetan Mikov, 2015)
- designed for stupid people
- too verbose
- no ternary operator
- no macros or templates
- can't change hash function in maps
- unwieldy to code new collections
- no function overloading
- can't declare/validate implements interface
- no virtual functions
- case defined exports is bad
- http://valuedrivenit.blogspot.ru/2015/12/to-go-language-is-mess.html (Cliff Berg, 2015)
- un-googlable name
- confusing/stupid syntax
- polymorphism is broken
- compilation rules are too confining
- designed for stupid people
- package mechanism is broken
- http://blog.goodstuff.im/golang (David Pollak, 2015)
- no immutables
- too simple / lack of syntactic sugar
- confusing/stupid syntax
- too opinionated
- error handling
- stuck in 70's
- no generics
- upper-case/lower-case scoping is bad
- no
map
/reduce
/filter
- http://byrd.im/go-is-poor/ (Ian Byrd, 2015)
- not-so-obvious slices behaviour
- nil interfaces are not entirely nil
- unexpected variable shadowing
- no first-class support of interfaces
- questionable compiler rigidity
- go generate is a quirk
- https://blog.plan99.net/modern-garbage-collection-911ef4f8bd8e#.62yek82xg (Mike Hearn, 2016)
- misleading marketing around garbage collector
- garbage collector is nothing new; concurrent mark/sweep from the '70s
- garbage collector requires implicit (hidden) tradeoffs
- garbage collector optimized for pause times at the cost of other desirable gc features
- http://www.jtolds.com/writing/2016/03/go-channels-are-bad-and-you-should-feel-bad/ (JT Olds, 2016)
- channels are slow
- channel API is inconsistent
- https://medium.com/@rgausnet/3-reasons-why-go-isnt-the-perfect-language-yet-25e0da5ec04c (Ryan Gaus, 2016)
- not stable
- no
map
/reduce
/filter
- bad dependency management
- https://www.teamten.com/lawrence/writings/why-i-dont-like-go.html (Lawrence Kesteloot, 2016)
- upper-case/lower-case scoping is bad
- case defined exports is bad
- no first-class support of interfaces
- no exceptions
- difficult to generate code automatically
- no ternary operator
- sort.Interface approach is clumsy
- no versioning model
- import-based vendoring is terrible
- no generics
- https://awalterschulze.github.io/blog/post/sum-types-over-multiple-returns/ (Walter Schulze, 2017)
- no sum types
- no algebraic data types
- multiple return parameters are overrated
- http://sitr.us/2017/02/21/changes-i-would-make-to-go.html (Jesse Hallett, 2017)
- no non-nullable types
- error handling
- no generics
- no tagged unions
- no first-class tuple
- concurrency and parallelism are mixed
- https://grimoire.ca/dev/go (Owen Jacobson, 2018)
- hostile to developer ergonomics
- too opinionated
- package mechanism is broken
- GOPATH is a mess
- error handling
It's a reverse complaints index, generated by https://github.com/ksimka/go-is-not-good/blob/master/generator.go (thanks to @capoferro)
- GOPATH is a mess
- https://rule1.quora.com/Golang-Not-yet (Jordan Zimmerman 2014)
- https://grimoire.ca/dev/go (Owen Jacobson 2018)
new
andmake
instead of one- https://cowlark.com/2009-11-15-go/ (David Given 2009)
panic
instead of exceptions- bad dependency management
- https://rule1.quora.com/Golang-Not-yet (Jordan Zimmerman 2014)
- https://kaushalsubedi.com/blog/2015/11/10/golang-sucks-heres-why/ (Kaushal Subedi 2015)
- http://nomad.so/2015/03/why-gos-design-is-a-disservice-to-intelligent-programmers/ (Gary Willoughby 2015)
- https://medium.com/@rgausnet/3-reasons-why-go-isnt-the-perfect-language-yet-25e0da5ec04c (Ryan Gaus 2016)
- bad unicode support
- c-style
- https://cowlark.com/2009-11-15-go/ (David Given 2009)
- http://ridiculousfish.com/blog/posts/go_bloviations.html (ridiculousfish 2012)
- can't change hash function in maps
- can't declare/validate implements interface
- can't import packages relatively
- case defined exports is bad
- channel API is inconsistent
- channels are slow
- compilation rules are too confining
- concurrency and parallelism are mixed
- confusing and undebuggable
- confusing/stupid syntax
- http://www.yinwang.org/blog-cn/2014/04/18/golang (Wang Yin 2014)
- http://valuedrivenit.blogspot.ru/2015/12/to-go-language-is-mess.html (Cliff Berg 2015)
- http://blog.goodstuff.im/golang (David Pollak 2015)
- cumbersome interface
- defer is abused
- designed for stupid people
- different build approaches
- difficult to generate code automatically
- https://www.teamten.com/lawrence/writings/why-i-dont-like-go.html (Lawrence Kesteloot 2016)
- error handling
- https://uberpython.wordpress.com/2012/09/23/why-im-not-leaving-python-for-go/ (Yuval Greenfield 2012)
- http://how-bazaar.blogspot.ru/2013/04/the-go-language-my-thoughts.html (Tim Penhey 2013)
- https://www.upguard.com/blog/our-experience-with-golang (Mark Sheahan 2014)
- http://spaces-vs-tabs.com/4-weeks-of-golang-the-good-the-bad-and-the-ugly/ (Freddy Rangel 2015)
- http://blog.goodstuff.im/golang (David Pollak 2015)
- http://sitr.us/2017/02/21/changes-i-would-make-to-go.html (Jesse Hallett 2017)
- https://grimoire.ca/dev/go (Owen Jacobson 2018)
- garbage collector is nothing new; concurrent mark/sweep from the '70s
- garbage collector optimized for pause times at the cost of other desirable gc features
- garbage collector requires implicit (hidden) tradeoffs
- go generate is a quirk
- http://byrd.im/go-is-poor/ (Ian Byrd 2015)
- goroutine is not original and revolutionary
- hard to extend
- https://rule1.quora.com/Golang-Not-yet (Jordan Zimmerman 2014)
- hard to test, hard to mock
- has pointers
- hidden types
- https://rule1.quora.com/Golang-Not-yet (Jordan Zimmerman 2014)
- hostile to developer ergonomics
- https://grimoire.ca/dev/go (Owen Jacobson 2018)
- immature GC
- https://rule1.quora.com/Golang-Not-yet (Jordan Zimmerman 2014)
- http://www.yinwang.org/blog-cn/2014/04/18/golang (Wang Yin 2014)
- immature toolchain
- import-based vendoring is terrible
- https://www.teamten.com/lawrence/writings/why-i-dont-like-go.html (Lawrence Kesteloot 2016)
- inconvenient
range
- is compiled
- lack of basic data structures
- misleading marketing around garbage collector
- multiple return parameters are overrated
- multiple return values have no type checking
- nil as a failure marker
- nil interfaces are not entirely nil
- http://byrd.im/go-is-poor/ (Ian Byrd 2015)
- no OOP
- https://cowlark.com/2009-11-15-go/ (David Given 2009)
- https://dzone.com/articles/i-don%E2%80%99t-much-get-go (Jon Davis 2010)
- http://magicmakerman.blogspot.ru/2013/07/why-googles-go-programming-language.html (Magic Maker Man 2013)
- no
map
/reduce
/filter
- no
this
- no algebraic data types
- no asserts
- no constructors
- https://cowlark.com/2009-11-15-go/ (David Given 2009)
- no decent IDE
- https://rule1.quora.com/Golang-Not-yet (Jordan Zimmerman 2014)
- https://www.upguard.com/blog/our-experience-with-golang (Mark Sheahan 2014)
- no exceptions
- https://dzone.com/articles/i-don%E2%80%99t-much-get-go (Jon Davis 2010)
- http://www.darkcoding.net/software/go-lang-after-four-months/ (Graham King 2012)
- https://rule1.quora.com/Golang-Not-yet (Jordan Zimmerman 2014)
- https://www.teamten.com/lawrence/writings/why-i-dont-like-go.html (Lawrence Kesteloot 2016)
- no first-class support of interfaces
- http://byrd.im/go-is-poor/ (Ian Byrd 2015)
- https://www.teamten.com/lawrence/writings/why-i-dont-like-go.html (Lawrence Kesteloot 2016)
- no first-class tuple
- no function overloading
- no function/operator overloading
- no generics
- http://how-bazaar.blogspot.ru/2013/04/the-go-language-my-thoughts.html (Tim Penhey 2013)
- https://rule1.quora.com/Golang-Not-yet (Jordan Zimmerman 2014)
- http://yager.io/programming/go.html (Will Yager 2014)
- https://www.upguard.com/blog/our-experience-with-golang (Mark Sheahan 2014)
- http://www.yinwang.org/blog-cn/2014/04/18/golang (Wang Yin 2014)
- https://kaushalsubedi.com/blog/2015/11/10/golang-sucks-heres-why/ (Kaushal Subedi 2015)
- http://nomad.so/2015/03/why-gos-design-is-a-disservice-to-intelligent-programmers/ (Gary Willoughby 2015)
- http://blog.goodstuff.im/golang (David Pollak 2015)
- https://www.teamten.com/lawrence/writings/why-i-dont-like-go.html (Lawrence Kesteloot 2016)
- http://sitr.us/2017/02/21/changes-i-would-make-to-go.html (Jesse Hallett 2017)
- no immutables
- http://yager.io/programming/go.html (Will Yager 2014)
- http://blog.goodstuff.im/golang (David Pollak 2015)
- no language interoperability (only C)
- no macros or templates
- no non-nullable types
- no pattern matching
- no semicolons at line endings
- no subpackages
- no sugar for slices
- no sum types
- no tagged unions
- no ternary operator
- no unused imports
- no user-type iteration
- https://cowlark.com/2009-11-15-go/ (David Given 2009)
- no versioning model
- no virtual functions
- not stable
- not-so-obvious slices behaviour
- https://www.upguard.com/blog/our-experience-with-golang (Mark Sheahan 2014)
- http://spaces-vs-tabs.com/4-weeks-of-golang-the-good-the-bad-and-the-ugly/ (Freddy Rangel 2015)
- http://byrd.im/go-is-poor/ (Ian Byrd 2015)
- package mechanism is broken
- pointers are a mess
- https://rule1.quora.com/Golang-Not-yet (Jordan Zimmerman 2014)
- polymorphism is broken
- poor design
- https://cowlark.com/2009-11-15-go/ (David Given 2009)
- poor std math lib
- project layout is bad
- psuedointellectual arrogance of Rob Pike and everything he stands for
- questionable compiler rigidity
- http://byrd.im/go-is-poor/ (Ian Byrd 2015)
- slow json parsing
- sort.Interface approach is clumsy
- https://www.teamten.com/lawrence/writings/why-i-dont-like-go.html (Lawrence Kesteloot 2016)
- stuck in 70's
- https://cowlark.com/2009-11-15-go/ (David Given 2009)
- https://uberpython.wordpress.com/2012/09/23/why-im-not-leaving-python-for-go/ (Yuval Greenfield 2012)
- http://www.darkcoding.net/software/go-lang-after-four-months/ (Graham King 2012)
- http://nomad.so/2015/03/why-gos-design-is-a-disservice-to-intelligent-programmers/ (Gary Willoughby 2015)
- http://blog.goodstuff.im/golang (David Pollak 2015)
- stuck in Unix thinking
- summary: not elegant as Python, not strong as Java
- the worst compiler toolchain ever
- too opinionated
- http://corte.si/posts/code/go/go-rant.html (Aldo Cortesi 2013)
- http://www.evanmiller.org/four-days-of-go.html (Evan Miller 2015)
- http://blog.goodstuff.im/golang (David Pollak 2015)
- https://grimoire.ca/dev/go (Owen Jacobson 2018)
- too simple / lack of syntactic sugar
- https://cowlark.com/2009-11-15-go/ (David Given 2009)
- http://nomad.so/2015/03/why-gos-design-is-a-disservice-to-intelligent-programmers/ (Gary Willoughby 2015)
- http://blog.goodstuff.im/golang (David Pollak 2015)
- too verbose
- too young
- type inference is too simple
- un-googlable name
- unexpected variable shadowing
- unwieldy to code new collections
- upper-case/lower-case scoping is bad
- https://rule1.quora.com/Golang-Not-yet (Jordan Zimmerman 2014)
- http://blog.goodstuff.im/golang (David Pollak 2015)
- https://www.teamten.com/lawrence/writings/why-i-dont-like-go.html (Lawrence Kesteloot 2016)
- weird mascot (gopher)
Feel free to add a PR with a new or old article you found on the internet. The structure is simple, just look at existing entries. Run make
and check in the resulting README.md
along with your updated entries.json
.
{
"URL": "https://kaushalsubedi.com/blog/2015/11/10/golang-sucks-heres-why/",
"Author": "Kaushal Subedi",
"Year": 2015,
"Complaints":[
"no generics",
"slow json parsing",
"bad dependency management",
"no subpackages"
]
}
- merge complaints with the same ideas under the same names (make the complaints list smaller)
- sort reverse index by the number of articles which have that complain (popular complains to the top)