Golang vs JavaScript vs PHP

Need advice about which tool to choose?Ask the StackShare community!

Golang

23.4K
13.6K
+ 1
3.3K
JavaScript

367.5K
264.3K
+ 1
8K
PHP

143.3K
79.1K
+ 1
4.6K

Go vs JavaScript vs PHP: What are the differences?

Introduction:

Go, JavaScript, and PHP are all programming languages used in web development. While they have similarities, there are key differences between them that make them suitable for different purposes. In this analysis, we will outline six key differences between Go, JavaScript, and PHP.

  1. Syntax and Structure: Go follows a strict and simplified syntax, with a C-like structure. It emphasizes simplicity and readability, making it easier for developers to understand and maintain code. On the other hand, JavaScript and PHP have more flexible and dynamic syntax, allowing for quick prototyping and experimentation.

  2. Concurrency and Scalability: Go was built with concurrency and scalability in mind. It provides built-in support for handling multiple tasks concurrently, using goroutines and channels. This makes it highly efficient for handling heavy workloads and creating scalable applications. Conversely, while JavaScript and PHP also support concurrent execution through asynchronous programming, they may require additional frameworks or libraries to achieve the same level of efficiency as Go.

  3. Performance: Go is known for its excellent performance. It compiles down to machine code, resulting in faster execution times compared to interpreted languages like JavaScript and PHP. Moreover, Go's static typing and compiled nature allow for efficient memory allocation and optimization. JavaScript and PHP, on the other hand, are generally slower as they are interpreted or just-in-time compiled.

  4. Typing: Go uses static typing, meaning variable types must be declared explicitly and checked during compilation. This helps catch type-related errors early in the development process, enhancing code reliability. In contrast, JavaScript and PHP are dynamically typed, allowing for more flexibility but potentially leading to runtime errors if not handled properly.

  5. Package Management: Go has a built-in package manager, Go Modules, which simplifies dependency management by allowing developers to specify and control external dependencies easily. This ensures consistent and reproducible builds across different environments. In contrast, JavaScript relies on npm (Node Package Manager) and PHP relies on Composer for package management. While these tools are powerful and widely used, they require separate installations.

  6. Community and Ecosystem: JavaScript has a dominant presence in web development, with a wide range of libraries, frameworks, and tools available. It has a large and active community that constantly contributes to its ecosystem. PHP also has a significant user base and extensive community support, although it is more focused on server-side web development. Go, although relatively newer, has been gaining popularity, but its ecosystem and community are not as mature as those of JavaScript and PHP.

In summary, Go stands out with its simplicity, excellent performance, built-in concurrency support, and robust package manager. JavaScript, with its dynamic nature and extensive ecosystem, is well-suited for front-end web development. PHP, on the other hand, specializes in server-side web development and has a strong community.

Advice on Golang, JavaScript, and PHP
Needs advice
on
CSS 3CSS 3JavaScriptJavaScript
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ReactReact

Hi, I learned some skills like HTML & CSS and JavaScript. Now I am learning React but sometimes I feel that I'm not good enough in the skills that I learned before although I make projects by any skills I learned. Every moment I feel that I need to be perfect and I know it's a wrong feel. Now I try to know How can I determine that I have the basis of any skills that I learn I mean that When can I move from learning completing tutorials to learning according to my requirement.

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Replies (4)
Muhammad Waleed
Community and Content Operations at StackShare · | 14 upvotes · 82K views
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I admire your hard work for learning new technologies, but I would definitely recommend you to go out there, find internships and then learn by doing. There is not too much you can learn just from the tutorials, there are other important factors that you need to be a good programmer, you need to communicate, and do projects according to the liking of the client/project manager.

I would say it again, go out there and find internships to gain experience.

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Build a relatively more complicated project. Probably a solution for a problem you might facing rn. Take a few months to build it. Get yourself stuck in the bugs. Try to get outta that bugs. Don't worry about that imperfect feelings. Even senior devs go to Stackoverflow to seek help. And most importantly, finish the project, and don't give it up in the middle of the journey.

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Recommends
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JavaScriptJavaScript

I think with anything related to personal development is about comfort zone management. Being too comfortable one can feel bored, too outside ones comfort zone one may feel out of their depth. I'm sure there's more to this down the rabbit hole of psychology. However I found learning about motivation and striking the right balance of extending myself has truly helped keep me pushing forward at a steady pace. In the end do projects that are motivate you whilst incorporating learning as you go. So pick a project that you know is possible, that you can achieve if you put the work and effort in, and that the outcome of it will be as you expect. I think even the perfectionist in you will find that satisfying.

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Jef Kalashnikov
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I was in your situation 6 months ago. I was well experienced in HTML, CSS, JS and NodeJS but wanted to learn React too.

What really got me going was doing one project for my customer. It was a good basis to learn React in a real environment and it got me rolling.

I can only advice you to do some REAL projects, not a a tutorial to-do list application of sorts: these won't teach you around hard stuff to handle as they are very controlled.

Go out there, create a real application for a business or as an intern somewhere. :)

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Sadie Flick
Needs advice
on
JavaJavaJavaScriptJavaScript
and
PythonPython

Generally speaking, what are the most important things you expect a junior developer to know and be able to do from day 1 in your respective tech stack? Firm grasp of OOP? SQL? MVC? ORM? Algorithms and Datastructures? Understanding CRUD & the request response cycle? Database design? framework familiarity? Postman? Deployment? TDD? Git? Language-specific knowledge? Other things?

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Replies (5)
Prashant Singh Ahluwalia
Head of Engineering - AIOps at Microsoft · | 13 upvotes · 263.5K views
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at

Start with building a solid understanding of computer science fundamentals. Understand the basics of building blocks - memory, processing, storage, networking. Understand what CPU bound, memory bound, I/O bound, network bound processes are. Understand the cost of accessing data from Memory vs. Disk vs Network. Understand how multiple CPU threads help in optimizing the performance of a single machine.

Build expertise on a programming language. You may pick any language of your choice. I would recommend starting with Java / Python. Make sure you know one language really well. Build a strong understanding of Data Structures and Algorithms. You should be able to develop an intuition on when to use what. You may practice DS and Algorithm problems, using the language of your choice, on a competitive coding platform (e.g. Leetcode) or by building your own App!

Next, get familiar with basic cloud computing and distributed system concepts. Here is a good resource for that - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=p7NkTUyEE1o&ab_channel=JeffreyRichter If you understand the computer science fundamentals well, you will be able to apply those concepts here as well.

Hope it helps!

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Ability to read code and willingness to try to reason flow of operations and information. Tools and technologies change, one doesn't need to have them in toolbelt from day one. All things you name are relevant in some contexts, so it's not bad to understand them.

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Luan Himmlisch
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Just learn to learn. Learn to search and develop your logical thinking, that's all you need. No books, no deep study of how computers work, just logic and willingness to learn

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For me, it is less of a specific technology you know (although I would prefer you have some knowledge of some of my team stack). It is more the way you get into a problem, the eagerness to learn more, the true sincerity to say "I don't know", the open mind to find solutions in different ways and the "Yes we can" mentality no matter how hard it is.

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Recommends

Most employers don't expect from you to know how to implement CI/CD or any other funcy stuff. As junior developer you should focus on building a good toolset of good software practices & principles. Your soft skills are important as well. Learn about soft skills. Be eager to learn, be humble and show you talent and your creativity through your work. If you want to become a good developer ( at first) and a star engineer (at a later stage) then computer programming (coding) is your number one priority . Coding is like painting. Putting aside your talent, you have to practice a lot and improve your outcome each time. As junior developer you can learn how to write good code by studying existing code found in public git repositories (i e , github). As junior developer you should study some good software principles (i.e., DRY, KISS, YAGNI) and always recall them each time you write software code. As junior developer you should learn about coding standards and conventions. You will have to follow to your company's coding conventions (soon or later) as well as you will realize that you have to write code cosistent to the existing code base. At the end of the day, code consistency matters a lot. You have to improve your code day by day. If you manage to follow some good software practices you will find out that you will need an ORM to work with your database. Then you will realize that you need the X web framework to build your REST API etc. To sum up, you will start building a toolset with a single programming language and some good software practices & principles and then you will put new tools in it day-by-day.

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Needs advice
on
ElixirElixirGolangGolang
and
PythonPython

Hi! I'm currently studying Flutter for mobile apps, but I also have a demand to automate some tasks on the web and create backends' for my apps, so thinking about which one of those could be better? Considering the performance and how easy it's to learn and create stuff? (I'm already familiar with .NET stack but want something more "simple" to write)

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Replies (4)
Amit Mor
Software Architect at Payoneer · | 5 upvotes · 190.7K views
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on
PythonPython

Definitely Python. Lots of libraries, dead simple syntax. Lots of code examples and reference projects. Elixir is pure functional and takes time to grasp the concepts. Go is great, with simple syntax and performant runtime, but more strict as it is statically typed. For quick coding, nothing beats Python. As you come from .net I’d consider similar approach and be considering Java with SpringBoot as it makes Java faster and much more fun to code web servers

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Recommends
on
ElixirElixir

Elixir really has a good performance for the web (and in general). Its framework Phoenix for the web is a great tool, easy to install and to use, with features for websockets (and Pub/Sub) or LiveView to write reactive and real time app with only HTML (and Elixir) so basically everything is in one place

It can take some time to learn a few things in Elixir but I really think it's worth it, and it's very easy to go distributed and concurrent with Elixir. Also it's easier to code quickly with some features like the pattern matching or some operators like the pipe or the capture one

And in the case you need it you can still connect and interface Python and Elixir pretty quickly, and now Elixir has a lot of different frameworks : web, embedded or even neural networks now

Never went far with Go but I have some trouble with its syntax, I find it a bit messy

I don't have a lot of experience with the web with Python but I don't have a good experience with the little I did

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Recommends
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GolangGolangPythonPython

Judging your previous experience we will benefit from Golang in terms of portability and speed. If you want to go simplier use Python. If it's only scripts use Python.

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Shivam kr Shiv

Hey Vitor, You can use Node and Express JS to create a backend for your app. You can create REST APIS to connect your front end with the backend. It is a very simple and scalable solution for building backend web apps.

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Needs advice
on
JavaJavaJavaScriptJavaScript
and
PythonPython

I'm making my university community web service with a team. (6 members myself included)

And we decided to use JavaScript, HTML, CSS (for sure, it's the basic of websites) but couldn't decide for the back end part.

There are tons of languages, tools, etc., but I'm really new to programming, so I'd like to get some help to figure out what tools we need.

So my question is this: are there any good examples of web community services we can mimic the tools or get an insight from them?

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Replies (6)
Recommends
on
DjangoDjangoPythonPython

Since you're following Python, I would recomend using Django as your main back-end language. If you know Python it would be a great experience. Django is well documented on their official website: https://www.djangoproject.com/ I would also use React for front-end as well. Also this article is worth reading, I think progressive web app is something worth learning these days: https://web.dev/progressive-web-apps/ Hope that helps :)

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Since your team is already using JavaScript, there's a great number of examples for backend services written with NodeJS. I'd recommend using Firebase, or any backend as a service (you can use that term to find alternatives), for setting up your backend as it is much easier for newer people to understand and lets you focus on your core application logic, and not provisioning servers, databases, etc.

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anas mattar
Technical Lead at DPO International · | 2 upvotes · 218.7K views
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on
JavaScriptJavaScript

Since you're team is already using JavaScript, there are alot of examples and open source projects written with NodeJs, so I preffer this language in your backend application and also I am recommended using Mongo DB with It for saving data in it, and also for your frontend application I am recommanded using VueJs.

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Jamal Abdinasir
Product manager at abdinasirjamal171@gmail.com · | 1 upvotes · 218.9K views
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Kindly I don't find any help that solve this mystery I need more help if it will happen

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Nash Nziramasanga
Software Developer at Billow Software · | 1 upvotes · 218.5K views

Since you are already using JavaScript on the front end it would be easy to adopt the MERN (MongoDB, Express, React, NodeJS) stack which s all javascript based making it easy to transfer knowledge with the backend and front end

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Hüseyin Özkılıç
Senior Full-Stack Developer at RADSoft · | 1 upvotes · 218.5K views
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on
JavaScriptJavaScriptLaravelLaravel

Make it simple, most of projects doesnt need a AI, ML or big algorithms. If your project just serving end users take it to the web ready compatible. (Javascript, .Net, PHP Laravel)

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Needs advice
on
C++C++JavaScriptJavaScript
and
PythonPython

Hello, I am interested in learning how to program. I am a beginner, and many articles saying I should go with Python if I am new to programming. I considered Lua a long time ago, but for my career, I believe major programming languages should be better for me. I'm considering Python at this moment, but if you have other tools I should use, let me know.

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Replies (3)
Pat Fitzner
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on
PythonPython

Although Lua is a very simple,efficient, elegant and welcoming language, Python is extremely versatile. Therefore, if you want to get into programming without a defined direction, Python is the way to go. It has a lot of libraries, the ability to do anything and it is closer to other languages than Lua is (yeah I know about Lua and C, but from a learner's point of view, it makes sense). Additionally, Python will be a marketable skill, but I for one have not yet seen job offers for Lua devs.

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C langC langC++C++C#C#JavaJava

The language you choose is also dependant on the type of career / area of programming you wish to focus on: Web Based and mobile applicaitons I would lean towards Java, PC Applications I tend to like C#, Embedded industry C, C++

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anas mattar
Technical Lead at DPO International · | 2 upvotes · 193.5K views
Recommends

my advice , you should answer me for this question, what do you like to work: web base or mobile native or cross platform. if you like web base you should choose PHP or ASP.net or Node.js or if you like mobile native you should decide Android or IOS platform and else if you like cross platfrom you should learn Flutter with dart language. thanks

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Needs advice
on
JavaJavaJavaScriptJavaScript
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PHPPHP

Hi there. I'm looking to build an employee time tracker web app. This should also be optimized for mobile. I'm trying to figure out what the best stack is for this. I have knowledge of Java, JavaScript, some C#. I don't mind learning a new language for this purpose. Any help or advice would be really awesome! Thanks.

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Replies (6)
Stephen Gheysens
Lead Solutions Engineer at Inscribe · | 14 upvotes · 1.8M views
Recommends
on
JavaScriptJavaScript

Hi Otensia! I'd definitely recommend using the skills you've already got and building with JavaScript is a smart way to go these days. Most platform services have JavaScript/Node SDKs or NPM packages, many serverless platforms support Node in case you need to write any backend logic, and JavaScript is incredibly popular - meaning it will be easy to hire for, should you ever need to.

My advice would be "don't reinvent the wheel". If you already have a skill set that will work well to solve the problem at hand, and you don't need it for any other projects, don't spend the time jumping into a new language. If you're looking for an excuse to learn something new, it would be better to invest that time in learning a new platform/tool that compliments your knowledge of JavaScript. For this project, I might recommend using Netlify, Vercel, or Google Firebase to quickly and easily deploy your web app. If you need to add user authentication, there are great examples out there for Firebase Authentication, Auth0, or even Magic (a newcomer on the Auth scene, but very user friendly). All of these services work very well with a JavaScript-based application.

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JavaScriptJavaScript

As you have knowledge of Javascript, I would go towards Vue/React in Frontend and Node (with suitable framework) with backend. From my point of view Java would be too bloated for suggested kind of an app. I myself use PHP as a backend a lot and React as frontend but moving thoughts towards full stack javascript world.

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pramod shirsath
Founder at Supra Software Solutions · | 4 upvotes · 214.9K views

We migrated from PHP to Angular/PHP to Angular/Node to React/Node/AWS Lambda. React/Node(Typescript)/Lambda seems to be good so far as we have developed few applications (large and small) using this stack so far. React/Node/Lambda is also good for mobile. If you are planning to use AWS, you can use the S3 bucket to store the frontend and Lambda or EC2 for backend APIs.

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Recommends
on
JavaScriptJavaScriptPHPPHP

php is the best for beginners, and one of the best for web development at all, all the host servers can handle it, a basic knowledge in java is not enough for build a web site, but a basic knowledge in php is enough. learn php basics and oop and mvc design pattern or any framework like Laravel (optional), and javascript for frontend (a framework like React or Angular is optional but good) and you will build any web site you want.

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pramod shirsath
Founder at Supra Software Solutions · | 2 upvotes · 214.9K views
Recommends

We migrated from PHP to Angular/PHP to Angular/Node to React/Node/AWS Lambda. React/Node(Typescript)/Lambda seems to be good so far as we have developed few applications (large and small) using this stack so far. React/Node/Lambda is also good for mobile. If you are planning to use AWS, you can use the S3 bucket to store the frontend and Lambda or EC2 for backend APIs.

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Brandon Miller
Recommends

For just a time tracker app? I'd recommend going with a cloud-based approach. A couple serverless functions in whatever language you choose, and the front end can be a static website hosted inside a storage service (blob for Azure, bucket for AWS, etc). This will ultimately probably save you a little time, and them a little money on hosting.

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Brayden W
Needs advice
on
GolangGolangPythonPython
and
RustRust

Hey, 👋

My name is Brayden. I’m currently a Frontend React Developer, striving to move into Fullstack so I can expand my knowledge.

For my main backend language, I am deciding between Python, Rust, and Go. I’ve tried each of them out for about an hour and currently, I like Python and Rust the most. However, I’m not sure if I’m missing out on something!

If anyone has advice on these technologies, I’d love to hear it!

Thanks.

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Replies (4)
Recommends
on
GolangGolangPythonPython

Rust is still in low demand. It's a great language but you'll have a hard time finding jobs. Go is the mix of both Rust and Python. Great language with modern features, fast, scalable, fun to write, and at the same time it has high demand (not as much as python).

Python on the other hand is a language that you can't go wrong with. Look around you and see what your job market prefers. If there isn't much difference to you personally, pick the one with more demand.

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All of these are solid options, however considering your expertise currently, I would probably suggest Node.JS considering your past experience with JS. However Python offers a similar development environment to JS in my opinion, and Go is a good sort of intermediate between Rust and Node.JS and Python. It's fast, but not as fast as Rust, and offers a development experience that combines C-styled languages (like Rust), and Python-y languages... So: Rust for the fastest, Node for familiarity, Python for ease of development, and Go for a good middle ground. I have used all in personal projects... If you use Go, I suggest a easy to use web server framework like Fiber.

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Akihito KIRISAKI
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on
PythonPythonRustRust

Rust is a challenging choice, but worth to be chosen. It has strong memory-safety and type-safety, this gives you no bother about those errors. However, static typing languages often slow our developing speed down in early stage. In that case, it's effective to write prototype in an easy language like Python, and rewrite it in a hard language. It's important not to be afraid to throw away first code you write.

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Donald Tran
Software Engineer at T-Mobile · | 3 upvotes · 372.8K views
Recommends
on
RustRust

The other answers are excellent, but I want to be a bit of a contrarian and say you should learn Rust. While the number of jobs for it are (relatively) low(er), it is certainly expanding and you'd be surprised at which companies do use Rust (Discord, for example, is starting to move away from Golang to Rust!).

But the main reason is that learning Rust itself will teach you a lot about systems design (/backend) because of its borrow checker. You can try out a lot of ideas and make a lot mistakes and the borrow checker will always be there guide you to a better solution (thereby teaching you in the process).

Also, I wouldn't underestimated how important managing memory (and memory safety) is. While Golang is great in some ways, it doesn't protect you from pushing memory leaks into production. And eventually you'll come upon a scenario where you'll have to make your Python code run faster and the optimizations you'd have to do won't look pretty (or be very Pythontic).

And Rust is freakin fast! If you have Rust, you wouldn't need any other language for the backend (or any other systems level code). Check this blog post: https://blog.discord.com/why-discord-is-switching-from-go-to-rust-a190bbca2b1f?gi=dd8bc5d669d. Discord found that even after spending months optimizing Golang code it still wasn't fast enough. But unoptimized, first-draft Rust code was (is) faster by an order of magnitude!

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Piusha Kalyana
Needs advice
on
GolangGolangPHPPHP
and
PythonPython

Hi

I want to build a tool to check asset availability (video, images, etc.) from third-party vendors. These vendors have APIs. However, this process should run daily basis and update the database with the status. This is a kind of separate process. I need to know what will be the good approach and technology for this?

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Replies (5)
Hannes Holst
at 365 Consulting Services Ltd. · | 7 upvotes · 341.2K views
Recommends
on
PythonPython

hi - I think this depends on how you want to provide the information to the user. If you want to build a Wordpress-plugin: PHP If you want to build your own website: Python+Django / PHP / JavaScript+Node.js As Desktop application?

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Recommends
on
GolangGolang

The major advantage of Go is that you can run queries in parallel. Fire off a Go thread for each vendor and each thread can check the availability of assets from a specific vendor and update the database. Go supports hundreds of threads with ease.

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anas mattar
Technical Lead at DPO International · | 3 upvotes · 328.1K views
Recommends
on
PHPPHP

for what technologies you should use, this is depend on what technology do you prefer? your should think best structuing for your code because each API vendor has different to a nother one so it's better no merege code vendores together. your code must be using SOLID principle pattern and some design pattern such as Factory Pattern

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anas mattar
Technical Lead at DPO International · | 1 upvotes · 324.1K views
Recommends
on
C#C#GolangGolangPHPPHP

your decision depend on what language do you know. if you know php you can use laravel framework

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Oluwafemi Lawrence
Recommends
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GolangGolang

Hi, I would recommend Go because of strongly-typed nature which makes a developer more productive as it is less error prone compared to the other dynamic-typed language. Go also has cron-job library(powered by goroutines) that can help with your automated tasks.

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Needs advice
on
C#C#JavaScriptJavaScript
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ReactReact

Hi Everyone,

I have some experience working with JavaScript and React and will now try to learn C# - could you please share some similarities and differences between JS and C# and what rookie mistakes I should watch out for when learning C#?

Also, any tips & good practices are greatly appreciated :)

Thank you

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Replies (4)
Pavel Kalugin
Software Engineer at Paralect · | 9 upvotes · 194.4K views

If you want to learn C# to write some backend code you can also check out Node.js which is basically JavaScript running outside the browser. You can create any kind of web servers, APIs, scrapers, automation scripts, etc using all the same JavaScript.

A good entry to Node is Express.js. It is the most common web framework for Node. It's well documented and there are a lot of educational materials for it.

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Hameed Moshood
Recommends
on
C#C#

C# is .net framework of a programming language specially different from the programming languages you're used to. If you learn C# you will be experienceed in coding with VIsual Basic .net and also creating web development using ASP and this ASP also include JavaScript function.... I urge you to learn it

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Kudos Beluga
Recommends
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I prefer functional programming because it produces less buggy code (thus I recommend F#), and is simply better to learn this paradigm earlier on in your coding career rather than later. It can also do most stuff C# can do, namely code with .NET core. If you're going to learn .NET then you should learn Node.js+Express first though before doing web development with C#/F#

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Ross M.
System Architect at MomentFactory · | 2 upvotes · 177.7K views
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on
C#C#JavaScriptJavaScript

I think you can manage to find something about this topic. it's pretty popular one. ex: https://www.educba.com/c-sharp-vs-js/

Something I don't see discussed enough over the internet is the performance difference. I don't think you should worry about this. 95% of the time you won't notice the difference on your day to day projets. You will know what you need in terms of performance when you get there.

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Needs advice
on
GolangGolangPythonPython
and
RustRust

I am a beginner, and I am totally confused, which of these 3 languages to learn first. Go, Rust, or Python. As my studies are going which of them will be easy to learn with studies that is, I can learn and do my studies also. Which one of them will be easily handled with my studies, and will be much much useful in future?

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Replies (17)
Recommends
on
PythonPython

python is a good language to start for the beginner.

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Will Vandebelt
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GolangGolangPythonPython

Python is a great language to learn as a beginner. However, Go is really easy to learn as well and has a much more powerful standard library that will allow you to build very complex and powerful applications in the future. Go is becoming a standard in Cloud computing and concurrency. Both of which are very advanced but important.

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Recommends
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PythonPython

I have experience in all three languages, and you should learn python first. These are three different languages (read: tools) to solve different problems you may have. Python is a high level language you can use for writing cross-platform scripts, web servers, AI, websites (e.g. Django) and the list goes on. Python can be used for most programming tasks while being the easiest to learn of the three and probably the most productive as well.

A lot of tech companies start out with Python for their web services, but due to Pythons slow speed and the pain that comes with dynamically typed languages when the code base grows, switch to Go later on when they need to scale. Go is a systems language that thrives when used for high performance cloud/web or networking services. Go is used in performance critical networking situations such as Twitch's streaming services and Uber's geofence services. It's also very clean and simple syntax that makes it very easy to quickly understand what code does.

Python is an interpreted language and Go is a garbage collected language, but Rust is a highly performant and reliable compiled programming language without the extra baggage of runtime memory management. Rust forces you to follow coding patterns that assure memory safety. This makes Rust a perfect fit for high performance algorithms, game engines or safety-critical systems, but would be overkill for web servers or scripts on modern hardware.

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Recommends
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GolangGolang

I'd definitely start with Go. I know Python, Go and quite a few other languages.

Rust is not easy to learn as a beginner.

Python has way too many features to be called "easy" to learn. While it is very forgiving to beginner mistakes it feels like playing in a puddle of mud. It does not teach you clean programming at all. Unless of course you like messy.

Go on the other hand is very easy to learn. As a professional you can learn the entire language in under 2 hours. I have already given the tour of Go (https://tour.golang.org/) to complete beginners and they went through it very thoroughly and thereby knew the entire Go language in less than 5 days. While it is very easy to learn and very easy to read, it is quite strict on other things, guiding you to write clean code. For one it is a typed language and it is good to learn very early about types.

Knowing the entire language is of course not all there is to know. There is the standard library and a lot of other libraries to get to know in every language. Also one has to learn patterns in every language, get experience on how to structure code, dig deeper into the language itself to understand its inner workings, etc. That takes years in every language.

That being said, it depends very much on what you want to do with a language. If you want to go into ML and science you definitely need Python. If you want to go into cloud computing, distributed servers (which in my opinion any server should be nowadays), use Go. If you want to do systems level programming, e.g in hardware programming, use Rust.

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Kudos Beluga
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on
PythonPython

Rust is probably a bad choice for starting out. It is a low level language where garbage collection is not done automatically, and has to get you thinking about all the technical aspects. It is statically typed and compiled, so it's very strict with how you code. I do love Rust though, it's a nice language. Golang is also compiled and statically typed, but it aims to be for quick development, which makes it a better choice for starting out.

Python though can be great for starting out and getting a hold on how to program. You don't need to worry about things such as types, garbage collection, or an overwhelming amount of data types. Since I'm a JavaScript fanboy I can't help but say another great popular choice to start is JavaScript 😁

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C#C#PythonPython

If all you want is a gentle intro and have access to tools and libs that can help with your tasks, Python is the way to go. It's ecosystem is huge and the language is easy to pick up. However, if you are aiming to get into software industry, I'd highly recommend you also pick up another classic language like C++/C#/Java. It really helps you cement some CS & programming fundamentals and get more familiar with the concept of software design and software architecture. Not saying you cannot achieve good architecture in Python or Go, but traditionally you have more materials covering these classic OOP languages. And once you learn them, you can apply your knowledge to other languages and it helps you understand other languages faster.

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Python has the broadest reach as it's been around the longest; rust is much more difficult for a beginner to learn; I work with Go every day and it's probably the most productive general use language.

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Stanislav Petrov
Senior Software Engineer at GfK · | 3 upvotes · 299.7K views
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PythonPython

If you start learning programming I'd suggest Python language. I have no experience with Go and Rust so I cannot give you advice for them.

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Amity International School Sec Gurugram
Vice Cyber Captain at Student · | 1 upvotes · 299.4K views
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PythonPython

Python, because its the easiest to learn as a beginer. Its often called "English without grammar" because its terms and writing style is quite similar to English. Python also has a diverse range of applications like Web App, Desktop App, Data Science etc

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Recommends

Learn/start with C; don't rush after buzz words. Python is easy to learn but you would not get the underpinnings of memory and pointers, an important aspect of programming.

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Recommends
on
PythonPython

Python is the best programming language for starting out as it is quite easy to learn, but it also is very powerful and you can do plenty with it. It will be useful for a long time. Python is my recommendation.

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Recommends
on
GolangGolangPythonPython

Go and Python are going to be much easier to learn than Rust. The memory management for Rust is pretty hard to wrap your head around when you are first learning how to do basic things with the language. Get familiar with programming first, then learn Rust.

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I agree with most of the other answers here. Python is the best choice because it is super user-friendly, has an easy syntax, and can do many complex things in relatively fewer lines.

While Rust is a more recent and a great language nonetheless, it is slightly more complicated as it involves compiling and the syntax isn't so great.

And Go is the not a great choice either. While it has a decent syntax, keep in mind that Go won't be of much use unless you plan on working in Google. Even if you want to learn it, you can do so later.

I hope this helped you in making your decision, and welcome to the world of programming! I hope you enjoy.

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Recommends
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GolangGolang

Study, machine learning = Python | High performance computing, safety-oriented programming = Rust | Backend, feel productive with less runtime performance drawback = Go

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PythonPython

Python is the easiest of the languages to learn, and while the slowest in production, it will teach many of the basic fundamental concepts of programming, especially if you're not going to be doing anything low level or at a system level.

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PythonPython

Python is a great language to start programming with, there is an awesome python course on coursera by Dr. Charles Severance called Programming for everybody, check it out :)

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I'd choose python because with a good knowledge of python and it's libraries, you could do literally anything. Also it has a relatively simple structure, so it won't be tough for a beginner.

Later on if you wish to learn Rust and Go, please do by all means.

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Decisions about Golang, JavaScript, and PHP
Olivier B Deland
Web Developer, Consultant at ConseilsWeb · | 13 upvotes · 122.6K views

Coming from a C/C++ background, I picked up PHP 20 years ago. Today, the language is still in constant evolution while still having a stable base. It powers all of my backend project. It is fast to prototype and get started, and is supported almost everywhere.

Python and Node.js do not provide anything that PHP cannot already offer, so there is no point for me to switch to those language. Mature framework like Laravel provides real ease and speed of development to kick-start any new web project, be it a simple API or a robust ERP running on server-less architecture. There are libraries available for machine learning, crypto, web3 and pretty much anything you can think of.

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Jacob M
Brand Director at NCINTEV · | 15 upvotes · 108K views

I’m well aware of the hate that php receives and some of it is well warranted. But the ease of implementation for so many features that I find myself needed on a daily basis is head and shoulders above what I could achieve with JavaScript on my backend. I can do more without the need of frameworks but I still have many options if I want that. Especially with database handling I find many of the complainants about php to be pure rhetoric.

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We chose Rust for our web API because the Warp crate makes it easy to compose high-performance and asynchronous APIs. Rust allows us to achieve high development velocity because it provides zero-cost abstractions and enforces strict type and memory-safety checks with high quality and actionable error messages.

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Python will be used in order to train machine learning models from our data. We chose python for this task because it is the most common language for machine learning. It has very performant libraries like numpy and scikit-learn that provide functionality for manipulating data and creating models that you cannot get in other languages like JavaScript and Java. Additionally, it is the most familiar language for us to use for machine learning because almost every machine learning course teaches ml using python.

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Javascript will be used for both our frontend and backend on the web service. JavaScript is ubiquitous as the language to use for the frontend. For the backend, we decided to create our server using JavaScript because of its easy setup; using Express we can create a server in just a few short lines of code. It is simple not only to run the server locally, but to host it as well because any major service will support the language. JavaScript is a simple language to code in and familiar among our team members, so using it will help speed up development. Using JavaScript allows us to use NodeJS and npm, so we can use packages to easily set up the server, connect to a database and other convenient utilities. We also considered Python for our server. It is also very simple to create a server in Python, especially using flask. However, the extra familiarity with the JavaScript language and the ease of using packages were enough for us to pick JavaScript as our language of choice.

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Python: The top language in machine learning area because of the various open-source libraries. Our company will rely on open-source libraries for development as well.

Amazon EC2: Training machine learning model needs to be running on independent 3rd party computing resources. AWS EC2 can provide a variety of virtual computing resources based on what users need.

React+Javascript: React is popular and everyone in the team is familiar with it. React is an open-source JavaScript library that is used for building user interfaces specifically for single-page applications.

ExpressJS: Everyone in the team has used expressJS for development. It can create server-side web applications faster and smarter.

Amazon RDS: relational database service and free to use

Postman: Tool for the team to test API endpoint.

Circle CI: is lightweight and open. Therefore for faster deployment jobs, one can execute their codes on CircleCI as it deploys on scalable and robust cloud servers.

Docker: Easily pack, ship, and run any application as a lightweight, portable, self-sufficient container, which can run virtually anywhere

Github+Git: Julian is from Github so no other choice for us 😎

Slack: Everyone likes it and it's free

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Python: Top one language in machine learning area because of the various open source libraries. Our company will rely on the open source libraries for development as well.

Amazon EC2: Training machine learning model needs to be ran on independent 3rd party computing resources. AWS EC2 can provide variety of virtual computing resources based on what users need.

React+Javascript: React is popular and everyone in the team is familiar with it. React is an open-source JavaScript library that is used for building user interfaces specifically for single-page applications.

ExpressJS: Everyone in the team has used expressJS for development. It can create server-side web applications faster and smarter.

Amazon RDS: relational database service and free to use

Postman: Tool for the team to test API end point.

Circle CI: is lightweight and open. Therefore for faster deployment jobs, one can execute their codes on CircleCI as it deploys on scalable and robust cloud servers.

Docker: Easily pack, ship, and run any application as a lightweight, portable, self-sufficient container, which can run virtually anywhere

Github+Git: Julian is from Github so no other choice for us 😎

Slack: Everyone likes it and it's free

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2 major challenges for which JS comes as a handy tool, 1st its integration with AWS SDK was at par as Python and .net and the solution comes to hand with the reverse proxy solutions for the application to be running as an instance taking the situation of inside organization demography of resources expertise over the technology.

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Gabor Galazzo

As a startup, we need the maximum flexibility and the ability to reach our customers in a more suitable way. So a hybrid application approach is the best because it allows you to develop a cross-platform application in a unique codebase. The choice behind Ionic is Angular, I think that angular is the best framework to develop a complex application that needs a lot of service interaction, its modularity forces you (the developer) to write the code in the correct way, so it can be maintainable and reusable.

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Alexandre Desroches
Founder & Developper at Finance D · | 71 upvotes · 337.5K views

I had a goal to create the simplest accounting software for Mac and Windows to help small businesses in Canada.

This led me to a long 2 years of exploration of the best language that could provide these features:

  • Great overall productivity
  • International wide-spread usage for long-term sustainability and easy to find documentation
  • Versatility for creating websites and desktop softwares
  • Enjoyable developper experience
  • Ability to create good looking modern UIs
  • Job openings with this language

I tried Python, Java, C# and C++ without finding what I was looking for.

When I discovered Javascript, I really knew it was the right language to use. Thinking of this today makes me realize even more how great a decision this has been to learn, use and master Javascript. It has been a fun, challenging and productive road on which I am still satisfied.

Obviously, when I refer to Javascript, it is not without implying the vast ecosystem around it. For me, JS is a whole universe in which almost every imaginable tools exist. It's awesome - for real. Thanks to all the contributors which have made it possible.

To be even clearer about how intense I am with Javascript, let's just say that my first passion was music. Until, I find coding with Javascript! Yep, I know!

So in conclusion, I chose Javascript because it is versatile, enjoyable, widely used, productive for both desktop softwares and websites with ability to create modern great looking user interfaces (assuming HTML and CSS are involved) and finally there are job openings.

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Pros of Golang
Pros of JavaScript
Pros of PHP
  • 547
    High-performance
  • 395
    Simple, minimal syntax
  • 363
    Fun to write
  • 301
    Easy concurrency support via goroutines
  • 273
    Fast compilation times
  • 193
    Goroutines
  • 180
    Statically linked binaries that are simple to deploy
  • 150
    Simple compile build/run procedures
  • 136
    Backed by google
  • 136
    Great community
  • 53
    Garbage collection built-in
  • 45
    Built-in Testing
  • 44
    Excellent tools - gofmt, godoc etc
  • 39
    Elegant and concise like Python, fast like C
  • 37
    Awesome to Develop
  • 26
    Used for Docker
  • 25
    Flexible interface system
  • 24
    Deploy as executable
  • 24
    Great concurrency pattern
  • 20
    Open-source Integration
  • 18
    Easy to read
  • 17
    Fun to write and so many feature out of the box
  • 16
    Go is God
  • 14
    Easy to deploy
  • 14
    Powerful and simple
  • 14
    Its Simple and Heavy duty
  • 13
    Best language for concurrency
  • 13
    Concurrency
  • 11
    Rich standard library
  • 11
    Safe GOTOs
  • 10
    Clean code, high performance
  • 10
    Easy setup
  • 9
    High performance
  • 9
    Simplicity, Concurrency, Performance
  • 8
    Hassle free deployment
  • 8
    Single binary avoids library dependency issues
  • 7
    Gofmt
  • 7
    Cross compiling
  • 7
    Simple, powerful, and great performance
  • 7
    Used by Giants of the industry
  • 6
    Garbage Collection
  • 5
    Very sophisticated syntax
  • 5
    Excellent tooling
  • 5
    WYSIWYG
  • 4
    Keep it simple and stupid
  • 4
    Widely used
  • 4
    Kubernetes written on Go
  • 2
    No generics
  • 1
    Operator goto
  • 1
    Looks not fancy, but promoting pragmatic idioms
  • 1.7K
    Can be used on frontend/backend
  • 1.5K
    It's everywhere
  • 1.2K
    Lots of great frameworks
  • 896
    Fast
  • 745
    Light weight
  • 425
    Flexible
  • 392
    You can't get a device today that doesn't run js
  • 286
    Non-blocking i/o
  • 236
    Ubiquitousness
  • 191
    Expressive
  • 55
    Extended functionality to web pages
  • 49
    Relatively easy language
  • 46
    Executed on the client side
  • 30
    Relatively fast to the end user
  • 25
    Pure Javascript
  • 21
    Functional programming
  • 15
    Async
  • 13
    Full-stack
  • 12
    Its everywhere
  • 12
    Setup is easy
  • 11
    JavaScript is the New PHP
  • 11
    Because I love functions
  • 10
    Like it or not, JS is part of the web standard
  • 9
    Easy
  • 9
    Future Language of The Web
  • 9
    Can be used in backend, frontend and DB
  • 9
    Expansive community
  • 8
    Most Popular Language in the World
  • 8
    Can be used both as frontend and backend as well
  • 8
    For the good parts
  • 8
    No need to use PHP
  • 8
    Easy to hire developers
  • 8
    Everyone use it
  • 7
    Love-hate relationship
  • 7
    Popularized Class-Less Architecture & Lambdas
  • 7
    Agile, packages simple to use
  • 7
    Supports lambdas and closures
  • 7
    Powerful
  • 7
    Photoshop has 3 JS runtimes built in
  • 7
    Evolution of C
  • 6
    1.6K Can be used on frontend/backend
  • 6
    Can be used on frontend/backend/Mobile/create PRO Ui
  • 6
    Versitile
  • 6
    It let's me use Babel & Typescript
  • 6
    Easy to make something
  • 6
    Its fun and fast
  • 6
    Client side JS uses the visitors CPU to save Server Res
  • 6
    Hard not to use
  • 6
    Nice
  • 6
    It's fun
  • 5
    What to add
  • 5
    Clojurescript
  • 5
    Promise relationship
  • 5
    Stockholm Syndrome
  • 5
    Function expressions are useful for callbacks
  • 5
    Scope manipulation
  • 5
    Everywhere
  • 5
    Client processing
  • 4
    Only Programming language on browser
  • 4
    Because it is so simple and lightweight
  • 1
    Test
  • 1
    Not the best
  • 1
    Subskill #4
  • 1
    Easy to learn
  • 1
    Easy to understand
  • 1
    Hard to learn
  • 1
    Test2
  • 0
    Hard 彤
  • 950
    Large community
  • 817
    Open source
  • 765
    Easy deployment
  • 487
    Great frameworks
  • 387
    The best glue on the web
  • 235
    Continual improvements
  • 185
    Good old web
  • 145
    Web foundation
  • 135
    Community packages
  • 125
    Tool support
  • 35
    Used by wordpress
  • 34
    Excellent documentation
  • 29
    Used by Facebook
  • 23
    Because of Symfony
  • 21
    Dynamic Language
  • 17
    Cheap hosting
  • 16
    Easy to learn
  • 14
    Awesome Language and easy to implement
  • 14
    Very powerful web language
  • 14
    Fast development
  • 13
    Composer
  • 12
    Because of Laravel
  • 12
    Flexibility, syntax, extensibility
  • 9
    Easiest deployment
  • 8
    Readable Code
  • 8
    Fast
  • 7
    Most of the web uses it
  • 7
    Fastestest Time to Version 1.0 Deployments
  • 7
    Worst popularity quality ratio
  • 7
    Short development lead times
  • 6
    Faster then ever
  • 5
    Open source and large community
  • 5
    Simple, flexible yet Scalable
  • 4
    Open source and great framework
  • 4
    Large community, easy setup, easy deployment, framework
  • 4
    I have no choice :(
  • 4
    Has the best ecommerce(Magento,Prestashop,Opencart,etc)
  • 4
    Is like one zip of air
  • 4
    Easy to use and learn
  • 4
    Cheap to own
  • 4
    Easy to learn, a big community, lot of frameworks
  • 4
    Great developer experience
  • 2
    Used by STOMT
  • 2
    Hard not to use
  • 2
    Safe the planet
  • 2
    Fault tolerance
  • 2
    Walk away
  • 2
    Great flexibility. From fast prototyping to large apps
  • 2
    Interpreted at the run time
  • 2
    FFI
  • 1
    Secure
  • 1
    Bando
  • 1
    It can get you a lamborghini
  • 1
    Simplesaml
  • 0
    Secure

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Cons of Golang
Cons of JavaScript
Cons of PHP
  • 42
    You waste time in plumbing code catching errors
  • 25
    Verbose
  • 23
    Packages and their path dependencies are braindead
  • 16
    Google's documentations aren't beginer friendly
  • 15
    Dependency management when working on multiple projects
  • 10
    Automatic garbage collection overheads
  • 8
    Uncommon syntax
  • 7
    Type system is lacking (no generics, etc)
  • 5
    Collection framework is lacking (list, set, map)
  • 3
    Best programming language
  • 1
    A failed experiment to combine c and python
  • 22
    A constant moving target, too much churn
  • 20
    Horribly inconsistent
  • 15
    Javascript is the New PHP
  • 9
    No ability to monitor memory utilitization
  • 8
    Shows Zero output in case of ANY error
  • 7
    Thinks strange results are better than errors
  • 6
    Can be ugly
  • 3
    No GitHub
  • 2
    Slow
  • 22
    So easy to learn, good practices are hard to find
  • 16
    Inconsistent API
  • 8
    Fragmented community
  • 6
    Not secure
  • 3
    No routing system
  • 3
    Hard to debug
  • 2
    Old

Sign up to add or upvote consMake informed product decisions

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What is Golang?

Go is expressive, concise, clean, and efficient. Its concurrency mechanisms make it easy to write programs that get the most out of multicore and networked machines, while its novel type system enables flexible and modular program construction. Go compiles quickly to machine code yet has the convenience of garbage collection and the power of run-time reflection. It's a fast, statically typed, compiled language that feels like a dynamically typed, interpreted language.

What is JavaScript?

JavaScript is most known as the scripting language for Web pages, but used in many non-browser environments as well such as node.js or Apache CouchDB. It is a prototype-based, multi-paradigm scripting language that is dynamic,and supports object-oriented, imperative, and functional programming styles.

What is PHP?

Fast, flexible and pragmatic, PHP powers everything from your blog to the most popular websites in the world.

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Blog Posts

Dec 8 2020 at 5:50PM

DigitalOcean

GitHubMySQLPostgreSQL+11
3
2349
May 6 2020 at 6:34AM

Pinterest

JavaScriptC++Varnish+6
7
3348
JavaScriptGitHubReact+12
5
4119
Nov 20 2019 at 3:38AM

OneSignal

PostgreSQLRedisRuby+8
9
4621
Oct 24 2019 at 7:43PM

AppSignal

JavaScriptNode.jsJava+8
5
946
Oct 11 2019 at 2:36PM

LogRocket

JavaScriptReactAngularJS+8
5
1951
What are some alternatives to Golang, JavaScript, and PHP?
Python
Python is a general purpose programming language created by Guido Van Rossum. Python is most praised for its elegant syntax and readable code, if you are just beginning your programming career python suits you best.
Rust
Rust is a systems programming language that combines strong compile-time correctness guarantees with fast performance. It improves upon the ideas of other systems languages like C++ by providing guaranteed memory safety (no crashes, no data races) and complete control over the lifecycle of memory.
Java
Java is a programming language and computing platform first released by Sun Microsystems in 1995. There are lots of applications and websites that will not work unless you have Java installed, and more are created every day. Java is fast, secure, and reliable. From laptops to datacenters, game consoles to scientific supercomputers, cell phones to the Internet, Java is everywhere!
Node.js
Node.js uses an event-driven, non-blocking I/O model that makes it lightweight and efficient, perfect for data-intensive real-time applications that run across distributed devices.
HTML5
HTML5 is a core technology markup language of the Internet used for structuring and presenting content for the World Wide Web. As of October 2014 this is the final and complete fifth revision of the HTML standard of the World Wide Web Consortium (W3C). The previous version, HTML 4, was standardised in 1997.
See all alternatives