Learning Go, 2nd Edition and upcoming language changes

[Jon Bodner]

Hi all,

I'm in the middle of updating Learning Go from O'Reilly (https://learning.oreilly.com/library/view/learning-go/9781492077206/). The target release date is the end of this year and I wanted to make sure that I covered any language or library changes that can be expected through Go 1.22. 

I have already incorporated changes that are coming in 1.20, but didn't know which of the following I can expect in the next year or so:

- new for/range loop behavior 

- structured logger in standard library

- go.mod go declaration affecting compiler used on a per-module basis, possibly downloading new versions

- generics libraries moving from exp to standard library 

- iterators

- set type

- official arena allocator support

- only the struct literal with keys is legal outside of the package where a struct is declared 

- official support for profiles driving compiler optimizations

- is there anything I've missed?

I certainly don't expect a promise that a feature will or will not be added, but anything that can help keep the next edition of the book up-to-date would be greatly appreciated.

Also, I'm always looking for additional technical reviewers. If anyone is interested, please reach out to me!

Thanks,

Jon

 

[Ian Lance Taylor]

On Mon, Jan 2, 2023 at 7:20 PM Jon Bodner <j...@bodnerfamily.com> wrote:
>
> I'm in the middle of updating Learning Go from O'Reilly (https://learning.oreilly.com/library/view/learning-go/9781492077206/). The target release date is the end of this year and I wanted to make sure that I covered any language or library changes that can be expected through Go 1.22.
>
> I have already incorporated changes that are coming in 1.20, but didn't know which of the following I can expect in the next year or so:

It's a hard question to answer. Most of the things you mention are
proposals that haven't been accepted yet. I can say what I hope will
happen, but honestly most of these are undecided.

> - new for/range loop behavior

I hope this will get in, but I don't know whether it will.

> - structured logger in standard library

I hope this will get in, and I think it's fairly likely.

> - go.mod go declaration affecting compiler used on a per-module basis, possibly downloading new versions

I hope this will get in, but I don't know whether it will.

> - generics libraries moving from exp to standard library

I think this is moderately likely at least for slices and maps.

> - iterators

Really hard to say.

> - set type

Hard to say. There isn't even a solid proposal for this at the moment.

> - official arena allocator support

Doesn't seem very likely at this point.

> - only the struct literal with keys is legal outside of the package where a struct is declared

I think "go vet" already applies this rule. I have no idea whether it
will become part of the language proper.

> - official support for profiles driving compiler optimizations

I think this one is pretty likely to get in.

Of course I could be wrong about any of this. No promises.

Sorry that's probably not too helpful.

Ian