epi8

Both of those are problems for me. The garbage collection is probably the larger one, though, since I'm sure one could add explicit, hand-tuned SIMD into any language (auto-vectorization, while useful in many contexts, just doesn't cut it here).

The main thing is that the garbage collector is a problem in time-constrained and memory-constrained environments. I can't afford to wait to clean up my large data set until the GC decides to, and I can't afford to wait the 100ms that the GC may take. Or, more accurately, I might be able to, but I just don't know, and that lack of certainty means that a GC language is not an option for me.

But that's not to say that Go suxxors! Different solutions to different problems. I'm just saying why I won't be using Go to work on the project I'm on now.

"C++ programmers don't come to Go because they have fought hard to gain exquisite control of their programming domain, and don't want to surrender any of it. ... The issue, then, is that Go's success would contradict their world view."

No it won't! I'm excited about Go. What I've read about it makes it look like a language I would love to work in, some day. However, I don't think the problems I'm solving now are the problems Go is good at solving. The programs I'm writing run on one machine with restricted memory, and they need to be highly, highly performant. The execution time is measured in tens of milliseconds, and during that time we do a lot mathematics and processing. SIMD is our close, beloved friend. In that context, I don't think Go is an appropriate language, due to its garbage collector, its lack of precise control over where objects go in memory, and the overhead of method calls. But if I ever write code similar to that written by Google, C++ would be a terrible choice.

I was all on board with what he was saying until that last little jab. I'm not migrating to Go because I have problems that Go doesn't set out to solve, but I'm not threatened by Go, because it's just another tool. Having more high-quality, carefully-designed tools is never a bad thing, and I can't imagine ever being threatened by a new tool's success.

Honestly, this smacks of more divisive bullshit. Pythonistas vs Rubyists, VIM vs Emacs, and now, Go vs C++. Blurgh.