Google App Engine - Go vs. Python recommendations? [closed]

Question

I'm looking into writing my first application of Google App Engine. C# is my 'native' language, and so writing the app in Java would of course be most logical. BUT, I'm a geek and would like to take to opportunity to learn something new.

Therefore its a toss-up between Python and Go.

• Do you have a strong preference based on experience (ideally in the context of writing on App Engine).
• If you've come from C# (or another similar language), how was the transition?

Answer 1

The recently-released Go runtime for App Engine is labelled experimental for a reason: Both Go and Go-on-appengine are new and in a state of change.

If you want to experiment with Go and running Go apps in the cloud, go for it. If you want to write a production app on App Engine, use Python or Java.

Answer 2

This question is about as subjective as they come, but I'll bite anyway.

Python is easier to learn, has a much larger development community, is mature, and has a lot of third-party libraries available for you to integrate into your application. It's a winner for sure.

That said, Go is an extremely well-designed language. Far, far more so than Python. Go was specifically designed to allow you to catch most mistakes at compile time, while Python is almost legendary for its ability to mask your mistakes. Go code tends to be easier to maintain. Go is also dramatically more efficient than Python -- several times faster or even several orders of magnitude faster, depending on what you're doing.

Both languages are very powerful and very fast to write code in -- you can accomplish a lot in a short amount of space. But Go is unfinished and still in a state of flux, with core APIs still changing. It has a comparatively small developer base, and very few "real world" usage examples. Nonetheless, even this early in its development, it's already shown to be a compelling alternative with a clear use case.