Why Go Can't Try

7 hours ago

Go developers often write verbose error handling code, envying Zig and Rust's concise syntax.
Zig's error handling is more explicit than Go's, with compiler-enforced checks on error handling.
Go's error handling is verbose but not enforced by the compiler, allowing unchecked errors.
Adding a 'try' keyword in Go is complicated by the language's unstructured error type system.
Zig's error system uses compiler-known, finite error sets, enabling exhaustive checks.
Go's error type is an interface, allowing arbitrary error types but lacking compile-time guarantees.
Zig's errors are lightweight integers without payloads, relying on error return traces for context.
Changing Go's error system to be more like Zig's would break existing code and libraries.
The Go team resists 'try' because it would require a fundamental, incompatible redesign of the error system.
Go's error handling is deeply embedded in its ecosystem, making significant changes impractical.

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