Why You Don't Write Everything in Golang?
Recently a potential client asked me why I advise to write their app in Node.JS. Why not Golang? While gathering information about different technologies the client got an impression that Golang would be the best choice for their project. Here I’ll give a couple of reasons why sometimes we choose different technologies for the task.
I love Golang, but it is not a “blind love”. When the question is about providing valuable results in time, my preferences don’t matter. There are a lot of factors to consider when developing nieche software and your prefered technology may not fit the circumstances.
1. Time/Budget Factors
Anyone can build anything given enought time and money but usually not enough given. If you need a product MVP next month, and it is not in Golang nieche, perhaps it’s better to use something that delivers results in time.
2. HR Factors
Most likely your HR will look for Go developers with at least 2-6 years of exp. or just copy a job decription from the competitors. News flash - most of the established Go developers work in certain nieches and have expectations about the position. You may have a hard time to build a team if your nieche is different. And the job market for Golang is horrible, so usually Go devs are not 100% time on go projects. I suggest to look for devs with knowledge of Golang, build MVP with Node.JS, then make the final product in Go if required. The key point here is to “grow” developers who know your product, then they can implement it in any language/technology if needed.
3. Tech limitations
Sometimes the devs who prefer to use some language daily pick other technologies for a job. The reason most likely is the deep knowledge of the limitations and consideration of other factors. This is why sometimes I used C++ for building desktop applications, and Python to get some ML-related tasks done. Of cource I experimented with Go in this cases, but there’s a difference between experiments and something that goes to production and needs to mainained.
“Anyone who is considered a professional usually selects a right tool for a job but not otherwise.” - I don’t rememeber who said it, but basically this is a general vibe of this post.
4. QA
So what are Golang nieches? - Servers, distributed applications, cli applications, parsers, bots, web3, etc.
What is considered experemental in Golang? - Desktop, Mobile, GUI applications. Good progress past years, but still cooking.
What else might be good in Golang? - Programming some micro-controllers with TinyGo. Or some wasm stuff that TinyGo can compile.
What should you never do in GO? - Everything Go runtime wasn’t build for. It is not built for 3D games for example.
So, can X be done in Golang? - Yes, given Y time and Z money.
Peace ✌️