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is it worth learning golang? (sh.itjust.works)

submitted 3 days ago by thetreesaysbark@sh.itjust.works to c/programming@programming.dev

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I am a senior java developer in the cloud/distributed arch/ microservice area.

I've touched on golang in the past, but not learnt it in any formal/extensive way.

I see it cropping up in many java/microservice positions, and I'm curious if this is at some point going to overtake java in my area.

The current benchmarks seem to suggest that if autoscaling is key to your services, golang is the way to, well, go.

I looked at the job market and it doesn't yet seem to have taken over, but I'm curious how this is likely to play out over the next decade and if quakus for example is likely to become more competitive against golang. Interestingly, golang specific roles on average pay less than java ones in my area.

Let me know your thoughts or if you have any good articles / content on the subject.

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[–] hallettj@leminal.space 9 points 2 days ago (3 children)

It's hard to predict the future, but I can point to a couple of indexes.

TIOBE measures language popularity according to a variety of factors. It has Java on a steady downward trend over the last couple of decades, but shows it as still very relevant. TIOBE does not show comparable growth for Golang. I don't see much growth in the top 10 for languages that are especially suited to autoscaling. C# looks to be steady as a language in a similar niche as Java.

OTOH another survey from devjobsscanner that looks purely at job postings shows Java openings as very steady over the last couple of years. It also shows Java as more popular than Golang.

So I don't know exactly what conclusion to draw from that. But learning a new language can be a helpful exercise regardless to broaden your perspective, and to keep your skills sharp.

Personally for the purpose of producing resource-efficient binaries for scaling I prefer Rust. It's design incorporates some correct-by-construction strategies that promote high-quality code. And it's well-suited for compiling to WASM so you can do stuff like deploy small services to Cloudflare workers for wild scaling. But I guess Rust isn't making a big showing in the popularity charts. And Golang is popular for its lower learning curve.

[–] 6nk06@sh.itjust.works 5 points 2 days ago (2 children)

I have been mostly writing C++ for more than 20 years, but TOBIE seems useless (again...) Visual Basic and Pascal have better ratings than Kotlin or Rust? I don't believe it.

[–] misterbngo@awful.systems 8 points 2 days ago (1 children)

TIOBE merely measures the number of questions asked about a particular language online, which is obviously not exactly realistic metric but people for some reason love to spout it

[–] hallettj@leminal.space 3 points 2 days ago

That makes sense. I didn't find many surveys available, so I referenced the ones I could find.