All mainstream languages compile in about that ballpark, if not faster.
I've always found it odd that one of the driving design principles of Go was "fast compilation". It's always struck me as odd and short-sighted, obviously motivated by the Go authors' history with C++. If only they had spent some more time studying other languages, they would have realized that compilation times are really not a concern in languages these days, and they might also have designed Go with more modern features in mind, such as exceptions and generics.
Not really a concern? I don't agree. Look at large C++ projects, and let's not speak about GPU frameworks like CUDA, OpenCL and OpenACC. If it weren't be a concern, software companies wouldn't invest in clusters just for compilation.
Contrary to what many young developers may think, C and C++ aren't the only languages with compilation to native code.
Already in 1987 Turbo Pascal 4.0 was compiling quite fast, Borland states around 34,000 lines/minute for the 5.5 version in 1989.
Similar compilation speeds are possible for languages with modules, since the early 80's.
Go's compilation speed is only news for someone that never used a module based language for systems programming like Modula-2 or Turbo Pascal, just to name two.
What he was trying to say is that you shouldn't "design for fast compilation". You should design the language to allow modularity and fast compilation will naturally follow.
At the kind of project sizes you see at Google, you start to measure compilation time in tens of minutes. If you have a source control system that triggers an automatic build every time you upload a change for review, can you see how waiting 45 minutes (a number I got from a current Googler) to compile and verify that your change doesn't break the build might just be an inspiration to put a focus on compilation speed?
Also, when you code with generics, you're coding with Hitler.
All mainstream languages compile in about that ballpark, if not faster.
I've always found it odd that one of the driving design principles of Go was "fast compilation". It's always struck me as odd and short-sighted, obviously motivated by the Go authors' history with C++. If only they had spent some more time studying other languages, they would have realized that compilation times are really not a concern in languages these days, and they might also have designed Go with more modern features in mind, such as exceptions and generics.