Go and Java are among the few programming languages that belong to the family of C programming languages. Both are known and widely used by many software developers around the globe. How does Java and Go fare when it comes to performance and ease of use?
Go Language (Golang)
Go is a relatively young programming language developed by Google in 2007 particularly by computer scientist, Robert Griesemer, software engineer, Rob Pike, and pioneer of computer science, Ken Thompson. It is accompanied with many structures similar to that of C. The language was originally programmed and written in C, but is now written in Go, allowing for more self-maintenance in the program.
The primary purpose of creating Go was to improve coding more than what has already existed. Some of the most notable features of Go include a relatively smaller library. This makes coding through it simpler and faster. Go also doesn’t require brackets and parentheses whenever developers code, making it less intricate and easy to use.
One peculiarity with Go is that it has an unconventional way of error handling, which means that Go developers must be able to know how to code Go since a part of their skill involves working around Go’s error handling with less automation. However, once Go developers get a feel of the tricky parts in error handling, Go significantly comes at an advantage. Because of this simplicity, a part of your time must be reserved for debugging purposes and error handling.
Go is designed for multi-core computers and supports what developers call “parallel programming.” By supporting parallel programming, it has the capability to run multiple processes and it has a garbage collection feature, allowing developers to be able to manage their own memory and make coding in the program run faster.
Java
Java, unlike Go, has been around for some time now. Java was developed by computer scientist, James Gosling back in 1995. At present, Java is the most widely used language of all time.
Java is a class and object-oriented programming language. With the many built-in libraries inside the language, it is particularly easy to find immediately written code for specific needs. It is in this case that Java has many integrations built alongside them.
One advantage of Java to that of Go is that Java has better, more systematized error handling. Java has a more efficient error handler which makes less time for debugging saving more time when it comes to bug fixing.
Generally speaking, Java has had more advantage with possessing the characteristic of being old, rather than it being detrimental. There is already a wide amount of source code and improves the speed to which Java developers code.
The only disadvantage of Java is that although they have an existing array of already made code, much of this vast library has been outdated. Java developers may not exactly find the perfect source code that they need to build the program that they want and would then resort to editing the code in their library which may be more time consuming than building one from scratch. As a result, this may or may not be inefficient depending on the situation of the code needed.
Java or Go?
Go language despite having a significantly smaller library to that of Java, have all their library updated, new, and ready-to-go. It is in this sense that Go language doesn’t have any problems when it comes to whether or not the code needs further editing.
In the end, Go code is more compact, simple, and quick; built more for simplicity, agility, and scalability. Results are achieved much faster but only if businesses possess a skilled Go developer since there is an unconventional error handling in Go. Go is not object-oriented unlike Java.
Java is more established for a long time and more stable when it comes to debugging. If businesses and software developers are not necessarily in a hurry, Java is more friendly.
In conclusion, your choice on whether to choose Go or Java would depend heavily on your needs and priorities.
This being said, it is important to know that neither of the two weighs better over the other since both have their ways of going through coding. The real question is whether the two of them would still be a thing in 2022, and the answer is definitely a yes! The two programming languages are still as functional as they were, and they are still made to fill gaps in the tech world.
There is no one programming language that is built for solving everything, that’s why both of these programming languages are still going to be dominating the field of tech in the area of software development in the future.