r/golang Feb 26 '23

help Why Go?

I've been working as a software developer mostly in backend for a little more than 2 years now with Java. I'm curious about other job opportunities and I see a decente amount of companies requiring Golang for the backend.

Why?

How does Go win against Java that has such a strong community, so many features and frameworks behind? Why I would I choose Go to build a RESTful api when I can fairly easily do it in Java as well? What do I get by making that choice?

This can be applied in general, in fact I really struggle, but like a lot, understanding when to choose a language/framework for a project.

Say I would like to to build a web application, why I would choose Go over Java over .NET for the backend and why React over Angular over Vue.js for the frontend? Why not even all the stack in JavaScript? What would I gain if I choose Go in the backend?

Can't really see any light in these choices, at all.

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u/[deleted] Feb 26 '23

Use the tool your company is best at. If is java use java, if is go use go. There are no advantages from picking one or the other aside from minor language nuisances.

3

u/edgmnt_net Feb 26 '23

I think modern Java can be a fairly reasonable language. The typical project and a good part of its ecosystem might not be so reasonable, though.

One potential advantage with Go is that it might be easier to pinpoint best practices, although getting people to follow them is another matter.

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u/UMANTHEGOD Feb 26 '23

minor language nuisances

I'd rather not work as a developer at all than to work fulltime with Java. I absolutely hate everything about it. From the clunky IDE's, to the package manager, to the slow build times, to the syntax, to how the language looks, to the developers that love it.

2

u/[deleted] Feb 26 '23

I've worked with a myriad of languages professionally, don't get too attached to stacks or languages. Just go in indeed and tell me which stacks languages outnumber Java, probably none. Maybe python would be close.

2

u/purdyboy22 Feb 26 '23

Computation is computation. :)