Backward compatibility, Go 1.21, and Go 2

That raises an obvious question: when should we expect the Go 2 specification that breaks old Go 1 programs?

The answer is never. Go 2, in the sense of breaking with the past and no longer compiling old programs, is never going to happen. Go 2 in the sense of being the major revision of Go 1 we started toward in 2017 has already happened.

There will not be a Go 2 that breaks Go 1 programs. Instead, we are going to double down on compatibility, which is far more valuable than any possible break with the past. In fact, we believe that prioritizing compatibility was the most important design decision we made for Go 1.

I’m not well-versed enough in either programming or the Go programming language, but this seems like good news for Go programmers.

4 Comments

  1. 2023-08-15 12:13 pm
  2. 2023-08-16 12:38 pm
    • 2023-08-16 1:53 pm
  3. 2023-08-17 5:49 am