What's this

This repository is a list of articles that complain about golang's imperfection.

Motivation

Seems like complaining about go's flaws is becoming a trend. Any newbie must have a chance to read all the go-is-bad arguments before they go too far. So here it is.

What it's for

This repo is not aimed to offend or insult someone (at least not more than each author does it in its article), especially golang itself, its authors and the community. It is for educational purpose only. Any contributor can have an absolutely different point of view.

I don't think anyone would deny that go has weaknesses: it certainly has. But how do you know, is it really a language design flaw or is it just you, doing something completely wrong? This list here to help you quickly answer the question.

How to use it

You're writing some code. And suddenly you understand you need something that language can't give you. You go here and check if you're the one with that issue or not. If it's a common issue, it'll be here. Then you decide what to do: choose another tool for your task or go find a better solution or a workaround.

The List

• https://cowlark.com/2009-11-15-go/ (David Given, 2009)
• c-style
• poor design
• no constructors
• no user-type iteration
• new and make instead of one
• stuck in 70's
• no OOP
• too simple / lack of syntactic sugar
• https://dzone.com/articles/i-don%E2%80%99t-much-get-go (Jon Davis, 2010)
• no language interoperability (only C)
• no versioning model
• no OOP
• has pointers
• no semicolons at line endings
• no this
• no function/operator overloading
• no exceptions
• https://uberpython.wordpress.com/2012/09/23/why-im-not-leaving-python-for-go/ (Yuval Greenfield, 2012)
• error handling
• stuck in 70's
• panic instead of exceptions
• http://www.darkcoding.net/software/go-lang-after-four-months/ (Graham King, 2012)
• un-googlable name
• stuck in 70's
• no exceptions
• is compiled
• too young
• http://ridiculousfish.com/blog/posts/go_bloviations.html (ridiculousfish, 2012)
• c-style
• no unused imports
• bad unicode support
• no asserts
• http://magicmakerman.blogspot.ru/2013/07/why-googles-go-programming-language.html (Magic Maker Man, 2013)
• no OOP
• no asserts
• has pointers
• weird mascot (gopher)
• http://how-bazaar.blogspot.ru/2013/04/the-go-language-my-thoughts.html (Tim Penhey, 2013)
• error handling
• inconvenient range
• no generics
• http://corte.si/posts/code/go/go-rant.html (Aldo Cortesi, 2013)
• too opinionated
• http://blog.mattbasta.com/things_that_make_me_sad_in_go.html (Matt Basta, 2014)
• project layout is bad
• can't import packages relatively
• different build approaches
• no sugar for slices
• lack of basic data structures
• https://rule1.quora.com/Golang-Not-yet (Jordan Zimmerman, 2014)
• no decent IDE
• GOPATH is a mess
• pointers are a mess
• upper-case/lower-case scoping is bad
• hidden types
• immature GC
• hard to extend
• no exceptions
• no generics
• bad dependency management
• http://yager.io/programming/go.html (Will Yager, 2014)
• no generics
• no function/operator overloading
• nil as a failure marker
• type inference is too simple
• no immutables
• no pattern matching
• https://www.upguard.com/blog/our-experience-with-golang (Mark Sheahan, 2014)
• no decent IDE
• error handling
• unexpected variable shadowing
• no generics
• not-so-obvious slices behaviour
• http://dtrace.org/blogs/wesolows/2014/12/29/golang-is-trash/ (Keith Wesolowski, 2014)
• the worst compiler toolchain ever
• psuedointellectual arrogance of Rob Pike and everything he stands for
• confusing and undebuggable
• http://www.yinwang.org/blog-cn/2014/04/18/golang (Wang Yin, 2014)
• confusing/stupid syntax
• immature toolchain
• immature GC
• no generics
• multiple return values have no type checking
• cumbersome interface
• goroutine is not original and revolutionary
• defer is abused
• stuck in Unix thinking
• summary: not elegant as Python, not strong as Java
• https://kaushalsubedi.com/blog/2015/11/10/golang-sucks-heres-why/ (Kaushal Subedi, 2015)
• no generics
• slow json parsing
• bad dependency management
• no subpackages
• http://spaces-vs-tabs.com/4-weeks-of-golang-the-good-the-bad-and-the-ugly/ (Freddy Rangel, 2015)
• not-so-obvious slices behaviour
• error handling
• hard to test, hard to mock
• http://www.evanmiller.org/four-days-of-go.html (Evan Miller, 2015)
• no unused imports
• too opinionated
• poor std math lib
• weird mascot (gopher)
• http://nomad.so/2015/03/why-gos-design-is-a-disservice-to-intelligent-programmers/ (Gary Willoughby, 2015)
• too simple / lack of syntactic sugar
• no generics
• bad dependency management
• stuck in 70's
• http://tmikov.blogspot.com/2015/02/you-dont-like-googles-go-because-you.html (Tzvetan Mikov, 2015)
• designed for stupid people
• too verbose
• no ternary operator
• no macros or templates
• can't change hash function in maps
• unwieldy to code new collections
• no function overloading
• can't declare/validate implements interface
• no virtual functions
• case defined exports is bad
• http://valuedrivenit.blogspot.ru/2015/12/to-go-language-is-mess.html (Cliff Berg, 2015)
• un-googlable name
• confusing/stupid syntax
• polymorphism is broken
• compilation rules are too confining
• designed for stupid people
• package mechanism is broken
• http://blog.goodstuff.im/golang (David Pollak, 2015)
• no immutables
• too simple / lack of syntactic sugar
• confusing/stupid syntax
• too opinionated
• error handling
• stuck in 70's
• no generics
• upper-case/lower-case scoping is bad
• no map/reduce/filter
• http://byrd.im/go-is-poor/ (Ian Byrd, 2015)
• not-so-obvious slices behaviour
• nil interfaces are not entirely nil
• unexpected variable shadowing
• no first-class support of interfaces
• questionable compiler rigidity
• go generate is a quirk
• https://blog.plan99.net/modern-garbage-collection-911ef4f8bd8e#.62yek82xg (Mike Hearn, 2016)
• misleading marketing around garbage collector
• garbage collector is nothing new; concurrent mark/sweep from the '70s
• garbage collector requires implicit (hidden) tradeoffs
• garbage collector optimized for pause times at the cost of other desirable gc features
• http://www.jtolds.com/writing/2016/03/go-channels-are-bad-and-you-should-feel-bad/ (JT Olds, 2016)
• channels are slow
• channel API is inconsistent
• https://medium.com/@rgausnet/3-reasons-why-go-isnt-the-perfect-language-yet-25e0da5ec04c (Ryan Gaus, 2016)
• not stable
• no map/reduce/filter
• bad dependency management
• https://www.teamten.com/lawrence/writings/why-i-dont-like-go.html (Lawrence Kesteloot, 2016)
• upper-case/lower-case scoping is bad
• case defined exports is bad
• no first-class support of interfaces
• no exceptions
• difficult to generate code automatically
• no ternary operator
• sort.Interface approach is clumsy
• no versioning model
• import-based vendoring is terrible
• no generics
• https://awalterschulze.github.io/blog/post/sum-types-over-multiple-returns/ (Walter Schulze, 2017)
• no sum types
• no algebraic data types
• multiple return parameters are overrated
• http://sitr.us/2017/02/21/changes-i-would-make-to-go.html (Jesse Hallett, 2017)
• no non-nullable types
• error handling
• no generics
• no tagged unions
• no first-class tuple
• concurrency and parallelism are mixed
• https://grimoire.ca/dev/go (Owen Jacobson, 2018)
• hostile to developer ergonomics
• too opinionated
• package mechanism is broken
• GOPATH is a mess
• error handling

Reverse complaints index

It's a reverse complaints index, generated by https://github.com/ksimka/go-is-not-good/blob/master/generator.go (thanks to @capoferro)

• GOPATH is a mess
• https://rule1.quora.com/Golang-Not-yet (Jordan Zimmerman 2014)
• https://grimoire.ca/dev/go (Owen Jacobson 2018)
• new and make instead of one
• https://cowlark.com/2009-11-15-go/ (David Given 2009)
• panic instead of exceptions
• https://uberpython.wordpress.com/2012/09/23/why-im-not-leaving-python-for-go/ (Yuval Greenfield 2012)
• bad dependency management
• https://rule1.quora.com/Golang-Not-yet (Jordan Zimmerman 2014)
• https://kaushalsubedi.com/blog/2015/11/10/golang-sucks-heres-why/ (Kaushal Subedi 2015)
• http://nomad.so/2015/03/why-gos-design-is-a-disservice-to-intelligent-programmers/ (Gary Willoughby 2015)
• https://medium.com/@rgausnet/3-reasons-why-go-isnt-the-perfect-language-yet-25e0da5ec04c (Ryan Gaus 2016)
• bad unicode support
• http://ridiculousfish.com/blog/posts/go_bloviations.html (ridiculousfish 2012)
• c-style
• https://cowlark.com/2009-11-15-go/ (David Given 2009)
• http://ridiculousfish.com/blog/posts/go_bloviations.html (ridiculousfish 2012)
• can't change hash function in maps
• http://tmikov.blogspot.com/2015/02/you-dont-like-googles-go-because-you.html (Tzvetan Mikov 2015)
• can't declare/validate implements interface
• http://tmikov.blogspot.com/2015/02/you-dont-like-googles-go-because-you.html (Tzvetan Mikov 2015)
• can't import packages relatively
• http://blog.mattbasta.com/things_that_make_me_sad_in_go.html (Matt Basta 2014)
• case defined exports is bad
• http://tmikov.blogspot.com/2015/02/you-dont-like-googles-go-because-you.html (Tzvetan Mikov 2015)
• https://www.teamten.com/lawrence/writings/why-i-dont-like-go.html (Lawrence Kesteloot 2016)
• channel API is inconsistent
• http://www.jtolds.com/writing/2016/03/go-channels-are-bad-and-you-should-feel-bad/ (JT Olds 2016)
• channels are slow
• http://www.jtolds.com/writing/2016/03/go-channels-are-bad-and-you-should-feel-bad/ (JT Olds 2016)
• compilation rules are too confining
• http://valuedrivenit.blogspot.ru/2015/12/to-go-language-is-mess.html (Cliff Berg 2015)
• concurrency and parallelism are mixed
• http://sitr.us/2017/02/21/changes-i-would-make-to-go.html (Jesse Hallett 2017)
• confusing and undebuggable
• http://dtrace.org/blogs/wesolows/2014/12/29/golang-is-trash/ (Keith Wesolowski 2014)
• confusing/stupid syntax
• http://www.yinwang.org/blog-cn/2014/04/18/golang (Wang Yin 2014)
• http://valuedrivenit.blogspot.ru/2015/12/to-go-language-is-mess.html (Cliff Berg 2015)
• http://blog.goodstuff.im/golang (David Pollak 2015)
• cumbersome interface
• http://www.yinwang.org/blog-cn/2014/04/18/golang (Wang Yin 2014)
• defer is abused
• http://www.yinwang.org/blog-cn/2014/04/18/golang (Wang Yin 2014)
• designed for stupid people
• http://tmikov.blogspot.com/2015/02/you-dont-like-googles-go-because-you.html (Tzvetan Mikov 2015)
• http://valuedrivenit.blogspot.ru/2015/12/to-go-language-is-mess.html (Cliff Berg 2015)
• different build approaches
• http://blog.mattbasta.com/things_that_make_me_sad_in_go.html (Matt Basta 2014)
• difficult to generate code automatically
• https://www.teamten.com/lawrence/writings/why-i-dont-like-go.html (Lawrence Kesteloot 2016)
• error handling
• https://uberpython.wordpress.com/2012/09/23/why-im-not-leaving-python-for-go/ (Yuval Greenfield 2012)
• http://how-bazaar.blogspot.ru/2013/04/the-go-language-my-thoughts.html (Tim Penhey 2013)
• https://www.upguard.com/blog/our-experience-with-golang (Mark Sheahan 2014)
• http://spaces-vs-tabs.com/4-weeks-of-golang-the-good-the-bad-and-the-ugly/ (Freddy Rangel 2015)
• http://blog.goodstuff.im/golang (David Pollak 2015)
• http://sitr.us/2017/02/21/changes-i-would-make-to-go.html (Jesse Hallett 2017)
• https://grimoire.ca/dev/go (Owen Jacobson 2018)
• garbage collector is nothing new; concurrent mark/sweep from the '70s
• https://blog.plan99.net/modern-garbage-collection-911ef4f8bd8e#.62yek82xg (Mike Hearn 2016)
• garbage collector optimized for pause times at the cost of other desirable gc features
• https://blog.plan99.net/modern-garbage-collection-911ef4f8bd8e#.62yek82xg (Mike Hearn 2016)
• garbage collector requires implicit (hidden) tradeoffs
• https://blog.plan99.net/modern-garbage-collection-911ef4f8bd8e#.62yek82xg (Mike Hearn 2016)
• go generate is a quirk
• http://byrd.im/go-is-poor/ (Ian Byrd 2015)
• goroutine is not original and revolutionary
• http://www.yinwang.org/blog-cn/2014/04/18/golang (Wang Yin 2014)
• hard to extend
• https://rule1.quora.com/Golang-Not-yet (Jordan Zimmerman 2014)
• hard to test, hard to mock
• http://spaces-vs-tabs.com/4-weeks-of-golang-the-good-the-bad-and-the-ugly/ (Freddy Rangel 2015)
• has pointers
• https://dzone.com/articles/i-don%E2%80%99t-much-get-go (Jon Davis 2010)
• http://magicmakerman.blogspot.ru/2013/07/why-googles-go-programming-language.html (Magic Maker Man 2013)
• hidden types
• https://rule1.quora.com/Golang-Not-yet (Jordan Zimmerman 2014)
• hostile to developer ergonomics
• https://grimoire.ca/dev/go (Owen Jacobson 2018)
• immature GC
• https://rule1.quora.com/Golang-Not-yet (Jordan Zimmerman 2014)
• http://www.yinwang.org/blog-cn/2014/04/18/golang (Wang Yin 2014)
• immature toolchain
• http://www.yinwang.org/blog-cn/2014/04/18/golang (Wang Yin 2014)
• import-based vendoring is terrible
• https://www.teamten.com/lawrence/writings/why-i-dont-like-go.html (Lawrence Kesteloot 2016)
• inconvenient range
• http://how-bazaar.blogspot.ru/2013/04/the-go-language-my-thoughts.html (Tim Penhey 2013)
• is compiled
• http://www.darkcoding.net/software/go-lang-after-four-months/ (Graham King 2012)
• lack of basic data structures
• http://blog.mattbasta.com/things_that_make_me_sad_in_go.html (Matt Basta 2014)
• misleading marketing around garbage collector
• https://blog.plan99.net/modern-garbage-collection-911ef4f8bd8e#.62yek82xg (Mike Hearn 2016)
• multiple return parameters are overrated
• https://awalterschulze.github.io/blog/post/sum-types-over-multiple-ret