> But they have, multiple times? First it was just giving people links to godep when people complained in github issues. Then it was a tacit "we like this" about gps and glide. Then it was a pretty-much-official-blessing of dep. Now it's a super-official-now-we-mean-it implementation of vgo. I recognize this as a pattern because I do it all the time, software engineers constantly re-write things from the ground up when they don't care about actually solving the problem and just want to play around with cool new ideas.

No. Golang hasn't had an official/pretty-much-official dependency management system. The community recommends some tools over others, but that's about it.

With dep it is a bit different - the creators were google engineeers and they wanted it to become the official tool, with integration as a go subcommand etc.pp. - but that was never signed off by Pike or any other lead, only confirmed that it would be a possibility if the tools performs well.

With vgo its similar to dep - a proof of concept to see _if_ it works nicely.

Regarding a library multiple tools can use; Yes, that would be a nice thing - however when designing such a tool _and_ a library at the same time you will get into bigger problems. Generally you'll want a library designed by someone who already solved a given problem in at least one way. That brings enough experience to make the correct architectural decisions early on as well as a good, usable API.

I'm happy that we don't just get half-assed solutions just to have one. I have seen enough projects go to shit because a major step in the project was reconsidered a few times before management put a lock on it because it went through 'enough' revisions.