> So I think it is safe to say C# is indeed a minor language That's not really t...

bheadmaster · 2025-03-17T14:53:18 1742223198

> StackOverflow survey[0] shows C# (27.1%) right behind Java (30.3%)

Can we rule out sample bias here? After all, Jon Skeet [0] is an important part of the Stack Overflow's C# community.

It might just be the case that C# and Java developers use Stack Overflow more than users of other languages.

[0] https://toggl.com/blog/save-princess-8-programming-languages

CharlieDigital · 2025-03-17T14:59:11 1742223551

You get the same result from scraping job postings: https://www.devjobsscanner.com/blog/top-8-most-demanded-prog...

    1. JS/TS (note these two are collapsed)
    2. Python
    3. Java
    4. C#

So now you have two data points that align and are completely independent measuring two different things (one self reported, one based on employer job postings).

I'd say it's consistent and reliable?

It's not like people use StackOverflow because it's written in C#; people use StackOverflow because Google points us there.

Teckla · 2025-03-17T14:53:22 1742223202

But because they had an existing body of code that was not class based, it would be more of a re-write (C#) versus a refactor (Go).

I don't understand this reasoning at all, and I'm hoping you can shed some light on it.

As far as I know, C# supports static methods. Thus, using OO in C# would not have been required, would it?

I feel like I'm missing something here.

int_19h · 2025-03-18T03:30:39 1742268639

C# supports top-level functions as well, that's not the issue. But, just to give a simple example, in TS you can do things like:

   var foo: { bar: { baz: string } }

which have no equivalent in C#, because it doesn't have anonymous struct types, and its typing system is almost entirely nominal. Go, on the other hand, can translate this directly pretty much mechanically:

   var foo struct { bar struct { baz string } }

And keep in mind that they aren't completely ditching the existing implementation, either, so for a while they're going to have to e.g. fix bugs in both side by side. It helps when the code can also be mapped almost 1:1.

CharlieDigital · 2025-03-18T04:16:43 1742271403

The interesting thing is that you can do this in C# with tuples because tuples can nest tuples.

    type Platform = "Mastodon" | "Bluesky" | "Threads";

    type Profile = {
      name: string,
      socials: {
        handle: string,
        platform: Platform
      }[]
    }

    function getProfiles() : Profile[] {
      return [{
        name: "Charles",
        socials: [
          { handle: "@chrlschn", platform: "Mastodon" },
          { handle: "@chrlschn", platform: "Bluesky" }
        ]
      },
      {
        name: "Sandra",
        socials: [
          { handle: "@sndrchn", platform: "Threads" }
        ]
      }]
    }

Versus:

    using Profile = (
      string Name,
      (
        string Handle,
        Platform Platform
      )[] Socials //  Array of tuples in another tuple
    );

    enum Platform { Mastodon, Bluesky, Threads }

    Profile[] GetProfiles() => new[] {
      ("Charles", new[] {
        ("@chrlschn", Platform.Mastodon),
        ("@chrlschn", Platform.Bluesky),
      }),
      ("Sandra", new[] {
        ("@sndrchn", Platform.Threads)
      }),
    };

With some caveats

afiori · 2025-03-19T13:15:43 1742390143

I would love if in mapping the typescript types to go they ended up building a "compiler plugin" to enhance go's type system.

bheadmaster · 2025-03-26T09:43:06 1742982186

TypeGo by Microsoft (TM).

Considering how fast the TypeScript compiler is, the TypeGo -> Go transpilation might as well be similar (up to a constant factor) in speed to Go compilation itself.

I'd give it a try. As a highly enthusiastic Go programmer, a powerful TypeScript-like type system is something I'd welcome in Go with open arms.

Kipters · 2025-03-17T15:19:29 1742224769

That wouldn't feel very idiomatic - you can do it but would feel wrong

briandear · 2025-03-17T15:38:16 1742225896

I’ve never filled out a stack overflow survey. I wouldn’t say Stack Overflow is statistically representative what’s being used — it’s statistically representative of people that use Stack Overlow. 10 years ago SO was my go-to. Now, I barely notice it — it seems very outdated in many respects.

0x457 · 2025-03-17T14:52:22 1742223142

I never understood SO as a measurement tool for anything, but people that can't read docs.

CharlieDigital · 2025-03-17T14:57:13 1742223433

You have to have some metrics from somewhere to be able to understand which languages are being used.

SO is one data point, but there are certainly others.

briandear · 2025-03-17T15:39:40 1742225980

GitHub is probably a better source. SO is self selecting for people asking questions about something, not actually using it. A “harder” thing might have more SO questions, so it isn’t representative of actual usage.

CharlieDigital · 2025-03-17T16:00:56 1742227256

I posted above, but you can also see:

You get the same result from scraping job postings: https://www.devjobsscanner.com/blog/top-8-most-demanded-prog...

    1. JS/TS (note these two are collapsed)
    2. Python
    3. Java
    4. C#

Two datapoints, completely discrete, same result.

0x457 · 2025-03-17T22:35:21 1742250921

It tells me which languages have people asking questions about them. That metric is useful only if it's normalized around how many people are using that language, but we don't have that metric.