The Shape of Code

G is GPSS and Go.

GPSS (General Purpose Simulation System) is a domain specific language for discrete time simulation. This language gets a mention because it was created during the programming language Cambrian explosion that occurred during the late 60s/early 70s when people created all the programming language concepts we have today (pointers to new ideas that came later welcome); it also gets a mention because there are so few languages starting with G.

Go will be of interest to future software archeologists. Being created in to a world where everything is recorded its brief period of fame and decline into oblivion will be available for detailed scrutiny. How many young guns are creating, without management bothering to take an interest in technical details, the foundations of important corporate applications using Go? One common difference between Corporate source and Open source is that corporate people are often unwilling to give up what they see as substantial investment in existing code (open source developers are no different, but in this environment there are always plenty of other developers, with no stake in existing code, willing to jump in and write something ‘new’). Hopefully I will be around to see the results from analyzing the data from projects developed and maintained over Go’s history.