Go-ing Further
Now Is the Time to Learn Rust and Go
Change is afoot in developer mindsets and businesses for whom they work. The old way of coding in Java or .NET is not only tired, it’s also no longer interesting or exciting. Seeing how languages like Go and Rust are catapulting productivity and performance while handling security concerns more effectively is making both developers and business leaders reconsider their computing platforms for future growth. While legacy apps will continue to hang on for a long time to come, new efforts are not rehashes of these 20+ year old languages. Instead, the focus is now on faster development cycles at scale with better security and ease of deployment and management of those applications.
While Java and .NET can achieve these objectives, the amount of effort and legacy cruft that needs to be maintained is a deflating burden for developers and DevOps alike. And while change is always scary to conservative mindsets of stabilized operations (that is, if it ain’t broke, don’t fix it), doing nothing is a competitive disadvantage, because the rest of the world leaves you behind. DOS-based WordPerfect from the 1980s can still print out a well-formatted document, but who still uses that program? Similarly, developer tools of the trade will continue to evolve, and developers must change their mindsets to keep pace with inevitable change.
In addition to languages, the AI revolution will continue to disrupt existing models and workflows by introducing a new, and often much faster, approach to coding proof of concepts and even basic production code. The concerns of where the code is coming from and what company code might be leaked as a result of feeding the LLMs is real. But past concerns that were real — like when the Internet gravely troubled network admins with what could leak into the public space, and when on-prem business assets were migrated to the cloud via a ‘trusted’ external provider — did not stop the forward march. It doesn’t matter if you like it or not, it’s going to happen anyway — it’s best to embrace the change and open your mind to the larger possibilities ahead. So, if you haven’t already started learning languages like Go and Rust, now is the time to do so before you’re left behind maintaining crusty old Java and .NET applications.
Ready to Learn?
To learn Rust, start with Herbert Wolverson’s Hands-on Rust:
For Go, Ricardo Gerardi’s Powerful Command-Line Applications in Go is a good place to start:
Be sure to pick up a copy of Portable Python Projects by Mike Riley, available from The Pragmatic Bookshelf.
