Hey, devs around the world,
I set the goal of learning Golang about a year ago. But then the Stackoverflow Developer Survey was released and I saw that Rust was a good competitor against Golang.
Now, I have some time to learn new stuff but I'm not sure if Golang should be the next language I learn.
What do you guys think about this topic? Will Rust overtake Golang? Because Golang seems never got that popular as Rust currently is and seems not the language that is needed in most business projects in the future.
Would be cool if you can give me your opinion and may a few pros and cons of your decision.
Have a nice day!
Latest comments (49)
I am learning both. It is nice to see they provide struct and pointer. But I feel more encouraged or challenged to learn things like traits, generics, how method is implemented, memory management via ownership in Rust.
On the other hand, I still need to learn Go because there are a few job requirements for it. When it comes to compiling, I certainly prefer Go. Also for web backend development, there are more interesting frameworks to be used such as Gin, Fiber, Iris.
As for database connection, I like that Go provides standard package that proved to be easier to use than the likes of Diesel for Rust.
Therefore, at least for me :
Btw, I am also still learning (relearning) both Java and C/C++.
They are not competitors. They are almost opposite of each other.
Go is a simplified, garbage collected language. Because of its simplicity it is suitable for beginner programmers. And for security critical applications.
Also it allows you to quickly write services and stuff like FUSE filesystem code.
It might be a step up for Python programmers that are looking for a faster language.
Rust competes with C++. It is basically a C++ that get's the defaults right. I brings many influences from languages like Haskell. It has a steep learning curve. It spends a lot of effort on getting manual memory management right (borrow checker). It is almost the complete opposite of golang.
Yeah... I see Rust is like a modern C++, although it is not OOP by traditional definition. Whereas Go is like a modern C; the fact that Ken Thompson is one of the trio who created Go may validate my viewpoint.
How did you learn Go ?what are refrence material do you have?
Would be great if you could share as I am also starting in learning Go for next 6 months.
Probably the best resource out there is this:
quii.gitbook.io/learn-go-with-tests/
Awesome
Recently I read a good article from LogRocket, maybe will be helpful for you :) blog.logrocket.com/when-to-use-rus....
As someone who has done a professional foray into Go, and a side project foray into Rust, I found Rust much more generally practical to a variety of solutions. I feel it also has aided in my thinking process when programming - like I learn more about programming as I’m learning about Rust.
Go is very practical for network programming, but - and rust has this too - Go felt more awkward imo.
Rust, hands down. To me, Go looks like some duct taped futuristic C written in the 80s. I understand why this is the case, but Go's simplicity to me is more like tying someone's hands than making things simpler.
On the other hand, Rust provides a solid set of features and some very powerful features on top of that like traits and macros.
Exactly, I noticed that the compiler validates and enforces a LOT (that's also why the Rust compiler is slower than the Go compiler, it simply does more) ... if you program in a certain way in Rust and you program it "right" then you can almost be sure that it runs "right" - to a certain extent
OK, I personally would take Rust over Go any day. Even more I'll never touch Go again at least until they release Go 2. BUT! That doesn't mean you should prefer Rust over Go.
Usefulness and relevance of programming languages almost entirely depends on the domain you work in. If you're a DevOps Engineer Rust is almost entirely irrelevant while Go very relevant as a number of tools (Docker, Etcd, etc.) are implemented in it.
In a sense of "the language that is needed in most business projects in the future" both Rust and Go are irrelevant. The languages are PHP, JavaScript, Java, C#, Python in some order and some combinations.
Pretty much the only area where Rust and Go compete at all is development of (somewhat) high-performance low-memory network services. But even in this area they occupy rather disjoint "ecological niches".
From the Programming Language Theory point of view Go is a joke, it just ignores last 40 to 50 years of PLT research, while Rust is a decent language incorporating some theoretically strong aspects and making them work in constrained practical setting. But that aspects might be completely uninspiring and uninteresting to you.
So like always if you want to invest your time and effort with maximum benefit you should consider your (career) goals and future fields of work.
You know, sometime there are multiple good options, and that need not to be a source of stress.
Pick one and let go of FOMO
I don't see these languages being applied with the same user base.
I don't utilize either and my hobbies use D.
#dlang
What you'll want to do is either figure out the language you want to work in, or find a job you want and see what language they use rather than predicting a future.
"I set the goal of learning Golang about a year ago. But then the Stackoverflow Developer Survey was released and I saw that Rust was a good competitor against Golang."
I would try to avoid this status game as there will be something always overtaking something. Which language is #1 is a zero-sum game.
If you want to have a positive sum game, learn both. You'll discover that each language has it's place and solves a some problems well and other problems poorly.
I asked a similar question a while ago. I do Rust for my day job and was using Go for some hobby projects, but found my main hobby project was falling behind as it was written in Go and I just didn’t like coding in Go anymore.
I’ve finally rewritten it in Rust and am very happy with the result. Or am I just happy I don’t have to look at Go anymore ;)
I would recommend 2 possible perspectives to help you determine which has greater ROI potential:
xlanguageTo be honest... been a gopher for 5 years. I love the language, toolchain, the community, the OSS projects.
I was having the same debate a while ago and then I started a job that had go as part of its stack so that solved it for me.
A few issues.
Lack of genetics in go can be frustrating they do have interface{} which is equivalent to the object in Java. Its not very clean. They are coming soon though. To be added in the next release I believe.
It's most certainly not functional though you can pass functions around and return functions without any issues.
It's a bit verbose but that being said it's syntax is INCREDIBLY simple and it's super easy to learn. The concurrency and go routines are also awesome.
Rust I barely looked at but I did find they syntax about. It's the next language to pickup for me but so far I'm really enjoying go. It's as enjoyable to write as python though a bit wordy and much much faster.
Everything complies down to a single static fine which is great. Also I find the ability to complile an arm binary on Intel hardware black magic but I love that it works.
Different use cases in my mind and the key difference is around garbage collection.
I wouldn't build anything that needs ultra-smooth performance in GoLang. Say, a game engine, for instance. You need to manually manage your garbage collection when you are trying to draw your frames.
This is the other aspect. Where do you want to go with your development career? Search jobs with each language and see what places have been hiring recently. You'll see where Rust and GoLang are used the most. For instance, if you like DevOps work, Go will be the choice for sure (with some Python). Do you want to work in IoT at the chip level, Rust is going to be a path there.
Now, if you are interested in building mobile apps, Netiher will do many favors. Same for RESTful or GraphQL APIs. Yes, they are both super fast and can build highly performant services. However, other languages with rich, battle-tested libraries will probably net a faster development with more tooling for testing and deployment.
Finally, GoLang vs Rust popularity is subjective. I have seen GoLang used in production in MANY places. I have witnessed Rust in production only once. But, I'm not omnipotent.
Great advice for looking at the job postings. Golang is for sure here to stay within Devops roles. Rust has growing demand in key use cases. It still feels to me that Rust will be very niche for the long term, but in critical need.