Yeah, the article wasn't great. I think few supporters of named returns would even agree with that article.
Like all language features, you're always going to get some individuals who will misuse them. The author there I definitely think is misusing named returns for something that really needs to be optimised in the compiler instead.
In defense of the article, I can see how anyone writing a lot of Go would start to get a bit desperate for shortcuts. It's a language that's relentlessly hard on prolific writers, putting their needs second in favor of minimizing the context required for any code.
So I could see how things like having a alternative-providing validator chain take 5% fewer characters would feel intoxicating after using code generation to stamp out four variants of a competent data structure for some primitive types.
One minute you're moaning that features need to be removed from Go, the next you're mocking it for not having enough features. Yet you dont even code in the language you're clearly very opinionated and highly critical over.
We all have our personal preferences, I get that. But why can't people just live and let live instead of trying to make out their personal preferences are measurably better than those they dislike? After all, if all programming languages were identical then the IT industry would be worse off for it.
For what it's worth, I've been writing software for nearly 3 decades now and have writing applications in well over a dozen different languages. Go might lack some of the expressiveness I'm used to but it's still one of the most rapid languages I've used to create software. And one of the most painless to deploy too. In fact ironically some of the "worst languages" in terms of developer chin stroking have been some of the easiest to work with; Visual Basic (pre .NET) is another example. But if I had my way we would be back to writing DOS programs in Turbo Pascal. This is why I get so fed up with people moaning about their tools. Frankly put, mocking any particular tool for not behaving like another particular tool just shows ones own limitation as a developer.
> But why can't people just live and let live instead of trying to make out their personal preferences are measurably better than those they dislike? After all, if all programming languages were identical then the IT industry would be worse off for it.
I enjoy programming in Go about as much as I enjoy wearing shoes about 3 sizes too small. As a result, it's my goal to find very good arguments against its use in any of my projects. Should I feel bad about this? If so, can you come and stop people from powerdunking on me every time I talk about how Haskell is good at something?
I'm not mocking Golang here. It is what it is. I think it's an oddly designed tool based more around making Google's turnover easier to deal with rather than helping me as a software engineer. I am expressing frustration at people who want to laud its design as "good" or "progressive" or helpful when really, it's the language equivalent of a querty keyboard layout. Designed to be about as easy to learn as anything but prevent anyone from getting excessively good with it, because large skill gaps in a workforce with turnover are hard to manage around.
Like all language features, you're always going to get some individuals who will misuse them. The author there I definitely think is misusing named returns for something that really needs to be optimised in the compiler instead.