On Tuesday, August 6, 2019 at 7:35:08 AM UTC-4, Akram Ahmad wrote: > > For me, attending GopherCon 2019 recently in San Diego was tremendous fun > (The Gopher community is so amazing!) > > This is what I saw, the following being *the coordinates* to my > (incredibly unofficial) writeup: > > *What I Saw at GopherCon 2019* > <https://programming-digressions.com/2019/08/what-i-saw-at-gophercon-2019.html> > > > You'll be able to tell—a whole minute and a half into the writeup > above—that I’m taking inspiration from the inimitable Irish playwright and > polemicist George Bernard Shaw when he spilled his beans and said that, *My > method is to take the utmost trouble to find the right thing to say, and > then to say it with the utmost levity* 👻 > > Oh, and the following—it happens to be *Section 4*—will probably qualify > as the single most serious section in this GopherCon 2019 roundup: > > 4. Woohoo, Speaker Highlights [image: 📣] > > > In full candor, I was oh-so pleased by the high quality of the talks. I > sure learned a ton of Go programming tactics, techniques, and strategies to > bring back and apply to my own work <https://github.com/akramtexas>. For > the past one year—and this is to establish some context so we’re on the > same page—yours truly, an industry veteran in the area of architecting and > implementing distributed computing software systems, and used to > extensively wielding tools from the Java > <https://programming-digressions.com/2017/08/when-object-orientation-met-functional-programming.html> > and Scala > <https://programming-digressions.com/2015/07/best-scala-books.html> > ecosystems, > has been swimming full-time in the ocean that has arisen from the amazing > language that is Go. > > > Relax, I’m not about to go meta; to drive the marine metaphors home, > though, let’s just say that the beaches of San Diego were an especially > appropriate venue for hosting the conference. > > > Back to the GopherCon 2019 talks now. These are the ones that stand out, > and here I present merely a snapshot impression each. So in no particular > order, other than this being the order in which I recall them, they were by > the following speakers: > > > - *Elena Morozova:* I appreciated a lot how Elena’s talk (*How Uber > “Go”es <https://www.gophercon.com/agenda/speakers/442432>*) was > delightfully replete with helpful, thoughtful, and often times humorous > illustrations which shone a new light on an indispensable subject: How > does > one go about maintaining a large codebase for maximum readability and > minimal overhead? In addition to being really well done, the talk was > candid. Elena shared the challenges Uber faced in that > process—including > places where they ran into the occasional failure or two—yet emerged > with > successful solutions. Referring back to my notes, I remember now that > Elena > had also talked about actually introducing a software tool to actually > *enforce* consistent code structure (“Glue” was that project name, > and I’ll definitely be visiting that soon). All in all, excellent talk. > Neat stuff. > - *Marwan Sulaiman:* The terrific thing about Marwan’s talk (*Handling > Go Errors <https://www.gophercon.com/agenda/speakers/435201>*) was > the incredibly deftness with which he walked us through an actual use > case > of going about solving a complex problem by *thinking* in the > unique paradigms of Go (Anyone remember the excellent *Thinking in > Java* book from way back when? Hint: I want its counterpart for > Go!) Anyhow, I can attest to the wisdom of resisting the urge to go > your > own way; instead, the way to go is to lean on the philosophy with which > Go > has been designed to solve programming problems. And hey, even if > error-handling is not your heartthrob topic—I honestly can’t claim it > has > ever been mine—the way Marwan brought programmable errors to life (in > how > you can design your own architecture in this area, enabling you to get > a > solid grip on system failures) was cool. I was wowed. Frankly, an > outstanding talk. > - *Mat Ryer:* If I were asked to point to (only) one talk which did > an outstanding job of stripping away all *accidental* complexity, > leading me and others in the audience to keep a laser sharp focus > instead > on the *essential* complexity of problem-solving in the domain at > hand—adhering to the elegance of the Go way of doing things—it would be > Mat’s talk (*How I Write HTTP Web Services After Eight Years > <https://www.gophercon.com/agenda/speakers/441795>*). So I’ve done > this sort of thing at least 17 different ways in the past—using > assorted > tools from libraries that have evolved around more mature languages > such > as Java and Scala—Mat demonstrated just how elegantly (and simply!) it > all > can be done with Go. A talk (whose recording now) is not to be missed. > - *Katie Hockman:* What made Katie’s talk (*Go Module Proxy: Life > of a Query* <https://www.gophercon.com/agenda/speakers/438767>) so > compelling was the command with which she had masterfully assembled a > whole > boatload of hardcore tech subtopics into a unified whole and the > conviction > with which she presented her stuff. Trust me, delving into the > intricacies > of how her team built a module mirror and checksum database is not for > the > faint of heart. But Katie somehow managed to pull it off, never for a > moment shying from the guts of what makes authenticated module proxies > tick > (Merkle Trees and all!) The delightfully humorous (running) backdrop of > “the dog people” versus “the cat people” was well done and genuinely > engaging. And hey, from now on I will remember her advice to “Trust on > *your* first use”! (At least that’s what my scribbled notes say; > more on that later.) > - *Russ Cox:* I was expecting nothing less than exceptional quality > from the talk (*On the Road to Go 2* > <https://www.gophercon.com/agenda/speakers/441803>) by Russ and > came away really pleased. Let me remind you that this list of speakers > that > I’ve assembled here is in no particular order, other than this being > the > order in which I recall some of the stellar talks. For those not > familiar > with his name—is there anyone, really?—Russ leads the development of > the Go > programming language. His talk was methodical, precise, and > enlightening. I > got a really good feel for how the Go language (itself) is being > shepherded > and evolved (Simplify by reshaping, by redefining, etc. Abandoning > failed > experiments, growing stronger from the learnings. Etc.). Given that > we’re > on the road to Go 2, the talk answered the questions of (1) Where > exactly > are we? and (2) Where are we headed? I sure am glad I came to the > fantastic > talk by Russ to get the answers to exactly those burning questions. > - *Ian Lance Taylor:* The subject of Ian’s talk (*Generics in Go* > <https://www.gophercon.com/agenda/speakers/441804>) is incredibly > dear to me, making it virtually a guaranteed success even before I > heard a > word of his splendid talk. I was pleased. Very pleased. Coming from a > heavy > background in Java and Scala—where generics rule the day—I’ve been > hankering for generics since the day I immersed myself in Go > programming > over a year ago. Fast-forward one year to today, and Ian’s team > continues > to work hard to make genetics a reality for us gophers. He rightly > pointed > out that when it happens (i.e. when generics become a part of Go), > programming should feel no different—become no more esoteric—than when > working with the usual constructs: Yep, while there are clear > advantages to > introducing generics into Go, there also happen to be associated a > bunch of > requirements. Keep up the good work, Ian and team. > > Oh, and FWIW, I took copious notes. I felt *compelled* to; yes, to be > sure, the awesome conference organizers do make the slide decks available, > yet this inveterate note-taking engineer continues to find that the best > way to internalize complex subject matter is by way of pen and paper. > (Physical) action does shape thought > <https://www.amazon.com/Mind-Motion-Action-Shapes-Thought/dp/046509306X>, > methinks. (Hey, if it isn’t you again, in your naysayer splendor, kind of! > Looks like you want to see for yourself my *Good Housekeeping > *seal-of-approval > of sorts… Let me tell you, I’ll prove myself trustworthy. Should you > *still* need to see my seal-of-approval, I’ve got that, too. You stay > tuned.) > > > Speaking of the sections such as the above (to be found in the writeup), > they are: > > - 0. Welcome to the Show, Gophers! 🐭 > - 1. First Impressions 🍎 > - 2. So Is This Where Lemmings Jump Off? 🐹 > - 3. Thou Shalt Register 📒 > - 4. Woohoo, Speaker Highlights 📣 > - 5. There Is No Middleware 📬 > - 6. Gophers, Too, Get Hungry 🍩 > - 7. We Do ML & AI With Go! 📺 > - 8. Inside The Wizards’ Room 🚧 > - 9. Go Code Even Powers Bike Logistics 🚴 > - 10. I Took Notes (Lots Of Them!) 📕 > - 11. When Nighttime Falls 🌒 > - 12. Breakfast Is Served ☕ > - 13. Your Lips Move, But… 👏 > - 14. I Inventoried (The Cover Of) My Mac’s Lid… 📈 > - 15. The GopherCon Floor 🏄 > - 16. We Dive Right Back Into More Awesomeness 🏊 > - 17. How Does One Stop A Rhino From Charging? 💳 > - 18. Your Blogger Comes To His Senses 😴 > - 19. Gulp. The Swallows, Akram, The Swallows 🐝 > - 20. Afterword 🎬 > > Did I say that you all—aka the Gopher community—are amazing? > > My Best Wishes, > Akram <https://programming-digressions.com/> > > Sadly I could not make it. Any idea when, or if, video may be available?
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