Go Beats Python
As Best Command-Line Utility Language
Go blows Python away (in the way that the Google team envisioned):
- Fast as compiled C execution
- Approachable syntax
- Strictly typed
- No run-time installation required
- Cross-platform compiles
- Direct access to link any compiled library
- Rich low-level API and package libraries
- Full support for all forms of encryption
- Concurrent out of the box
- Rich network support out of the box
- Best programming community around currently
- Widely supported
- Fully integrated with devops and serverless
- Easy to package and distribute
- Compiles faster than Python interpreter even runs
- Unreadable source code
Command line utilities are designed to be fast, really fast, not necessarily execution is time to run. There is nothing faster than compiled code and there is no simpler compiled code to write currently than that developed originally at Google to (in part) replace Python. My God did they ever do it.
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In fact, the only downside to writing a command-line utility in Go is also one of its greatest strengths: unreadable source code. This is fantastic when deploying a utility you do not want some other admin to hack on, for safety as well as supporting change management procedures. Sometimes this is annoying, but not really if you use source management, which is encouraged and there another benefit of Go over Python. It is much more likely for a bit of critical Python code to live outside of source management that Go code.
And when Go is overkill there is a strong possibility all you need is a Bash instead.
