whygo.md

Why another Mass Spectrometry library?

Go is a programming language that makes it easy to build simple, reliable, and efficient software. This allows fast creation of high quality software, an important goal in modern (academic) environments.

MS libraries already exists for other programming languages, some carrying decades of development effort. However, these have been created in programming languages (in most cases also decades old) that are more complex or less efficient. We think the advantages of the Go programming language outweighs the benefits of other available libraries.

The following properties make software development in Go simple and efficient:

• tooling for e.g. debugging, testing and source code formatting are included in the Go distribution
• an extensive and modern standard library is included
• compile/build times are short
• developer disagreement is minimized because of a standardized programming style
• software developed in Go is easy to distribute, since it in normally compiled into a single executable with no external dependencies.
• reliable builds of downloaded software are guaranteed by build-in versioning and software repository access

Still not convinced?

Many high-profile companies use Go or have migrated to Go for key parts of their software development. Some examples with links to their Go software repositories:

• Google The makers of the Go language use it in many of their internal products
• Uber
• Docker
• Dropbox