Should Go 2.0 support generics?

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A long time ago, someone–I normally attribute this to David Symonds, but I can’t be sure he was the first to say it–said that the reason for adding generics to Go would be the reason for calling it Go 2.0. That is to say, adding generics to the language would be half baked if they were not used throughout the standard library. I wrote about this in a series of blog posts where I explored what I felt would be the repercussions of integrating templated types into Go.

• Simplicity Debt
• Simplicity Debt Redux

Do I think Go should have generics? Well, there are really two answers to that question.

As I argued in my Simplicity Debt posts, mainstream programmers in 2017 expect a set of features in their languages. Many of us work in polyglot environments. Even if we want to be writing in Go as much as possible, there’s usually some Javascript, some CSS, some Python, maybe some Java, Swift, C#, PHP or even C++ in the project. Maybe this will change in the future, but right now, if you’re a commercial programmer working for a crust, every day you’ll touch a bunch of languages, so their differences tend to rub against one another.

• Mainstream programmers expect static typing, not for performance, but for readability and maintainability–just look at what Typescript and Dart are bringing to Javascript, and Python’s formative efforts with optional typing.
• Mainstream programmers expect concurrency. They expect to be able to do more than one thing at a time–just look at node.js and the compromises programmers were prepared to make to move away from heavy-weight thread per connection models. Go is obviously well positioned here.
• Mainstream programmers expect some form of templated types because they’re used it in the other languages they interact with alongside Go.

So my first answer is: Go should have some form of generics because it is a mainstream, imperative, block scoped language and it is expected these days.

My second answer is if the designers of the language choose not to add templated types or parameterised functions–and keep in mind that I am not one of the language designers, only an exuberant fan–because, as I wrote in my series of posts, the repercussions for the simplicity and readability of the language may prove too jarring. If that were to happen, my recommendation would be that Go should own that decision.

What do I mean by that? Well, the best explanation I can give is a counterexample. Let’s look at Haskell. Haskell is what most functional programmers consider to be the baseline for a real FP language, and thus it looks pretty much like nothing programmers schooled in imperative, side effect ridden, block structured, languages are used to. But Haskell programmers own that. They own their difference, they don’t see it as a reason to make their language work more like PHP, or C++, or Rust, or even Go, and they are happy to explain the Haskell way of doing things to anyone who asks. My point is that if Go is not going to have a story for templated types, then we need to own it, just like Haskell programmers own their decisions.

This isn’t simply a case of saying “nope, sorry, no generics for Go 2.0, maybe in another 5 years”, but a more fundamental statement that they are not something that will be implemented in Go because we believe there is a better way to solve the underlying problem. Note that I did not say a better way to implement a templated type or parameterised function, but a better way to solve the underlying business problem. There is a difference.

This isn’t without precedent, Go was one of the first C style languages to eschew type inheritance, a decision which lead to a radical simplification of the language and a focus on the mantras of communicating intent via interfaces, and encapsulation over inheritance. Before Go, it was assumed that a mainstream language would have classes and a type hierarchy, nowadays that is less true.

So, should Go 2.0 have generics? If the decision is to add them then I’m sure it can be done, after all the syntax is the least important part of the decision, and there is a wealth of prior art in other languages to guide us. However, if the decision is not to add templated types, then it should be made so explicitly. Then it is incumbent upon all Go programmers to explain the Go Way of solving problems.

Related posts:

1. Simple extended attribute support for Go
2. Simplicity Debt Redux
3. Why Go and Rust are not competitors
4. Pointers in Go