dotGo 2015 - Rob Pike - Simplicity is Complicated

Summary

In this talk, the speaker explores the success of the Go programming language, attributing it to its simplicity compared to other complex languages. They discuss the concept of language relativity and its impact on programming, emphasizing the importance of readability and maintainability over language features. The speaker highlights Go's design philosophy, which focuses on long-term maintenance and large-scale programming, and how it balances expressiveness with simplicity. They also touch on the complexities hidden behind Go's simple interface, such as garbage collection, goroutines, constants, interfaces, and packages, illustrating how these contribute to Go's ease of use and popularity.

Takeaways

• 😀 The speaker humorously translates 'Bonjour Madame de Monsieur' into 'Hello my waffles', setting a light-hearted tone for the discussion on the Go programming language.
• 🌟 Go's success is attributed to its simplicity, which contrasts with the complexity and feature bloat seen in other programming languages.
• 🔍 The speaker criticizes the trend of languages borrowing features from one another, leading to a convergence that could limit diverse problem-solving approaches.
• 🎯 Go's design philosophy prioritizes readability and maintainability over adding features for the sake of expressiveness or novelty.
• 🛠️ The language's creators, including Ken Thompson and Robert Griesemer, insisted on a consensus for including features, ensuring they were both necessary and appropriate.
• 🚫 Go deliberately avoids adding features that do not enhance the language's core goals, such as long-term maintenance and infrastructure software development.
• 💡 The speaker emphasizes that simplicity in programming languages is about hiding complexity behind a simple interface, making the language easy to use without sacrificing power.
• 🔗 Go's features like garbage collection, goroutines, and interfaces are examples of simplicity on the surface hiding complex implementations.
• 📦 Packages in Go are a model of simplicity, abstracting away the complexities of cross-compiling and linking while providing a straightforward import system.
• 🌐 The design of Go reflects a commitment to solving real-world problems at scale, particularly in the context of cloud and server infrastructure.

Q & A

What is the main reason behind Go's success according to the speaker?

The speaker believes the main reason behind Go's success is its simplicity compared to other languages. This simplicity is not just a superficial feature but a core design principle that makes Go stand out.

What does the speaker think about the trend of languages adding features from other languages?

The speaker is concerned that many languages are converging into a similar model by borrowing features from one another, which could lead to a homogenization of thought in programming and less interesting solutions.

What is the Sapir-Whorf hypothesis as mentioned in the script?

The Sapir-Whorf hypothesis, also known as linguistic relativity, suggests that the language one speaks influences the way one thinks. The speaker uses this concept to argue that different programming languages should encourage different ways of thinking.

Why did the creators of Go decide to fix the language after Go 1?

The creators of Go decided to fix the language after Go 1 to prevent it from becoming bloated and to maintain its simplicity. They believed that adding more features would not improve the language but would make it less distinct.

What was the guiding principle behind selecting features for Go?

The guiding principle behind selecting features for Go was readability. The creators wanted a language that was easy to read and understand, which would lead to more reliable and maintainable code.

How does the speaker view the trade-off between language expressiveness and simplicity?

The speaker believes there is a fundamental trade-off between making a language fun to write in and making it easier to work on and maintain. Go chose the latter, focusing on long-term maintainability and readability.

What does the speaker mean when he says 'simplicity is the art of hiding complexity'?

The speaker means that while the surface-level features and usage of Go are simple, a lot of complex design, implementation, and refinement has gone into making it feel that way. The complexity is hidden from the user.

Why did the Go team decide against adding built-in map and filter functions?

The Go team decided against adding built-in map and filter functions because they might be more computationally expensive than a simple for loop and could lead to less efficient code by encouraging their use.

How does the speaker describe the concurrency model in Go?

The speaker describes the concurrency model in Go as one of the simplest available, using go routines, channels, and select to handle concurrency in a straightforward manner.

What is the speaker's view on constants in Go?

The speaker views constants in Go as a favorite feature, appreciating how they are treated just like numbers despite the language being strictly typed, which simplifies code without sacrificing type safety.

Why did the design of Go's package system take a long time for the creators?

Designing Go's package system was challenging because it interacts with various aspects like scoping, naming, information hiding, isolation, linking, compiling, and cross-compiling, making it a complex system to get right.