[maelstrom2]

Another in the long line of languages that are created to solve a problem that doesn't exist. Even worse, created as a way to force P&C carriers to be tightly coupled to a proprietary piece of software. With one industry being the only relevance for the language and that industry with usually the worst IT technical talent available.

I get it, Guidewire has some very talented engineers. Probably at least a few of the best in the valley. However, you're pushing it out to the dregs of the IT world and hoping to make it fly and gain adoption when those using it are generally just drawing a paycheck for the pulse their body maintains.

[scottmck]

Why so bitter? Gosu's a decent language that makes up (and continues to make up) for Java's deficiencies. Yet Gosu's syntax is very close to Java's, keeping the learning curve comparatively low. Basically, if you're proficient in Java, you'll have no trouble moving over to Gosu and, in contrast with say Scala, you'll also have no trouble reading other people's Gosu. But unlike Java, Gosu is designed to be both an embedded scripting language and a general purpose programming language.

As an enterprise software company Guidewire needed a statically typed scripting language directly compatible with the JVM, one a Java programmer could easily pick up, and one that could blend powerful features like type inference, closures, enhancements, properties, open types, structural and dynamic types, built-in templating, etc. Guidewire also wanted to directly and seamlessly use the power and flexibility of the scripting language directly in application source code. Why distinguish between a scripting language and a general purpose language? Why force your customers to juggle two separate languages? 12 years later it's still difficult to argue against Gosu. Sure, Java 8 is catching up in some core feature areas, and that's great news for JVM languages, but Java as a language is still not appropriate or even usable as an embedded scripting language, nor is it suitable for many of the other use-cases a very large scale web application requires.

Can Java 8 dynamically compile and load classes from source at runtime? Yeah, that's important too :)

[dventimi]

> Another in the long line of languages that are created to solve a problem that doesn't exist.

I assure you that the problems Gosu was created to solve did indeed exist at the time that it was created.

> Even worse, created as a way to force P&C carriers to be tightly coupled to a proprietary piece of software.

I assure you this also is not true. For evidence, I encourage you to notice the fact that Gosu is not a proprietary piece of software.

> With one industry being the only relevance for the language

Put another way. "Number of heavily-capitalized industries where Gosu is heavily used: At least 1." Would you rather it be 0?

> and that industry with usually the worst IT technical talent available.

Please. There's fierce competition for that distinction.

[maelstrom2]

I didn't say Gosu was proprietary. They've taken this whole "open-source" catchphrase and made some CIO's, that generally don't know anything other than budgets and bodies, feel better.

It does, however, tie you completely to the Guidewire platform/products. A very smart move by the company. It will be decades before these slow-moving behemoths will rip out this language that was a blip on the radar. That doesn't mean it was needed or is as historically important as the devs seem to think.

[dventimi]

Oh, God. Trust me, the swiftness or tardiness with which insurance companies replace their Guidewire stack will have nothing whatsoever to with Gosu.