[relyio]

>First, Go and C++ are vastly different languages.

Yes, the point isn't to say that they are similar. Quite the contrary in fact, they are different enough that they compliment well. If I have to do latency sensitive systems work I would use C++17. It's good enough, has useful constructs, and all-in-all, rather easy to write.

It's nice to have stronger static safety but they usually displace the cost somewhere else. AFAIK, Rust becomes extremely touchy when you start inter-operating with abstractions the borrow-checker is not omniscient about. Wrapping code in unsafe{} everywhere feels clunky. That's not my biggest peeve though. Programming complex systems is an iterative process for me. I prototype, go back, throw it away, rewrite, until requirements are met and so on. I don't feel like I would be productive doing that in Rust. I don't care for safety for as long as the software prototype is complete enough. In that phase of development, what I care about is a compromise between velocity, performance, and safety.

The only thing I really miss in C++ is powerful type-system: GADTs and all. But again, if I find that I need those I would use a language that truly excels at that, OCaml.

For anything else, I found Golang to be a terrific fit.

It is easy to on-board new people and have them get productive and feel empowered enough to push change. The building blocks are easy and compose well.

Yes, I agree the lacks generics of generics can be frustrating, especially when software grows. On the other hand, it can get old really fast to debug templated software.

As for GC, it might not use fancy algorithms but from empirical experience, having worked with a wide-range of different applications with different workloads, I found that GC pauses are short and hardly ever an issue. I wouldn't use to write a RTOS but for most usage it's fine and a net positive in productivity and quality.

>Go rose to popularity because of the authors and the company sponsoring it, not on its technical merits

It rose to popularity because it fills a huge niche. My job is to build robust systems that do their job and deliver business value. It's easy to maintain Go code, it's easy to understand, and provides the right amount of static safety most of the time. I find Golang to be a humble and honest language, a productive C.

Rust is cool but not worth it for me.

>No one in their right mind would be cracking out another C++ project if they took the time to learn Rust and C++.

If I had a dollar every time I had read that (replace Rust by Haskell/Erlang/Lisp/Whatever language the cool hip kids use).