Comment by HL33tibCe7
3 years ago
People like to dunk on V because of its author and community, but I will say that the design of the language itself (leaving aside the implementation) is genuinely interesting. To me, it feels like what Go should have been. And I like Go. So obviously I have a bit of a soft spot for V.
Disclaimer: I’ve never actually used it.
I'm sorry if you feel this is a dunk on V. Having seen quite a bit of discussion both on hacker news and other places saying that V has improved significantly since Xe's articles a few years ago, I thought it would be worth while to attempt a modern evaluation of the language based on where it is today. Throughout, I tried to ground my review by basing it on the claims the developers themselves make.
Would you mind expanding on your later comment? While I'm not a Go programmer, it's pretty easy for me to see why it has the features it has based on their commitment to fast compile times and being easy to learn. V on the other hand feels like an incoherent list of the biggest buzzwords in the industry right now with no clear overall design.
Sorry, I didn’t mean to suggest that this article itself was a dunk. I was commenting on the discussion I see elsewhere on the language (including elsewhere in this comments section). The article itself is a good summary of the problems with V — mostly with its implementation which does appear shoddy.
V’s design address many things I feel are lacking whenever I use Go: nil safety, sum types, option/result types, mandatory error checking. I think V is best understood in the context of being Go++.
Having looked a bit deeper though, the immutability and generics stuff does feel a bit bolted on, so I do see your point.
> I thought it would be worth while to attempt a modern evaluation of the language based on where it is today
A good idea indeed, thanks for the effort.
Although I'm quite surprised why V has gained so much attention.
> the design of the language itself (leaving aside the implementation) is genuinely interesting […]
> Disclaimer: I’ve never actually used it.
I can make a hypotethical language as well (I do it all the time), but I wouldn’t make a website about it and give it a name.
New language proposal: W
Features: * All of the things you want * No things that you don't want
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I agree, the interface has always been great which is what attracts people. The core developer is just overselling and it’s coming back on him
Or maybe it has to do with "never actually used it" after empty platitudes. The article goes to great lengths to show what works as promised or not, you'd expect at least some mention of what the interesting design features are.
He doesn't have to be a user of the language to see that people are dunking on it. Some of the similarities of Vlang and Odin to Golang would be obvious from looking at the syntax and documentation by Go users. Though I do agree, it would have been better if he had played with it a bit.
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