proposal: cmd/go: add .ʕ◔ϖ◔ʔ as an alternate spelling of .go in file names

[rsc]

The new (apparently closed-source) programming language Mojo uses files named .mojo, but it allows .🔥 as an alternate spelling of .mojo, as in hello.🔥.

Issue #45549 tracks handling of unicode in import paths, module paths, and file names. We have been proceeding cautiously due to the many subtle issues involved in cross-platform support, case-insensitive file systems, and so on: modules must work equally well on all supported systems.

Clearly Go is being left behind in the Unicode race. We must not let this stand. I propose that we throw caution to the wind and standardize on .ʕ◔ϖ◔ʔ as an alternate spelling of .go, as in hello.ʕ◔ϖ◔ʔ.

The change would be primarily in go/build: .ʕ◔ϖ◔ʔ files would be added to the GoFiles lists. There are probably a few places elsewhere in the toolchain that know the extension .go, such as go tool compile x.go writing out x.o, or VS Code registering .go as the file suffix it supports. These will no doubt be trivial to find.

In #57001, there was some concern about the semantics of Go build tags changing meaning in a subtle way. We could address that by only applying the new semantics in .ʕ◔ϖ◔ʔ files. Older toolchains already have code to ignore those.

There were similar concerns in the discussion #56010 about changing the semantics of for loops. The new .ʕ◔ϖ◔ʔ provides an answer: .go files get the old for loop semantics, while .ʕ◔ϖ◔ʔ get the new semantics.

For long-term migration, go fix can rename .go files to .ʕ◔ϖ◔ʔ

There are a few weeks left before the Go 1.21 freeze. That should be plenty of time for a careful, considered discussion of this proposal and then a complete implementation with no subtle problems. Let's go ʕ◔ϖ◔ʔ!

[rsc]

(In all seriousness congrats to the Mojo team on their announcement. The rest of the language looks interesting, and I hope they join the open-source language club soon.)

[markuswustenberg]

And, if the proposal for almost unthinkable reasons does not gain public approval, I propose a Go language and toolchain fork, naturally just called ʕ◔ϖ◔ʔ.

EDIT: The unthinkable has happened. The work will proceed here: https://github.com/markuswustenberg/gopher

[LeGEC]

Is there a proposal to add a new gopher emoji in the standard unicode character set ?
I can't find the proper emoji to react to this proposal 🐐

[hajimehoshi]

In #57001, there was some concern about the semantics of Go build tags changing meaning in a subtle way. We could address that by only applying the new semantics in .ʕ◔ϖ◔ʔ files. Older toolchains already have code to ignore those.
There were similar concerns in the discussion #56010 about changing the semantics of for loops. The new .ʕ◔ϖ◔ʔ provides an answer: .go files get the old for loop semantics, while .ʕ◔ϖ◔ʔ get the new semantics.
For long-term migration, go fix can rename .go files to .ʕ◔ϖ◔ʔ

IMHO, for this purpose, using numbers like .go2, .go3, ... would make more sense. What if we want yet another new semantics after .ʕ◔ϖ◔ʔ becomes the default?

[amit-upadhyay-IT]

AFAIK go is a language which does not believe in copying features from other languages. Just saying! 😇

[mattn]

Would this really work correctly on Windows?

[philippta]

Following the aesthetics of Mojo and what the emoji set has to offer, I suggest supporting either of these file extensions instead:

• hello.🦫
• hello.🦦

[atdiar]

I know it's bikeshedding, but why not go with the character ❤️ instead because "AI" also means love in nihon-go... I mean... Japanese.
More orthogonal? 😂

[JWhist]

Is it semantically correct for the eyes to be looking to the right, or should we consider any pupillary configuration as acceptable?

[DianeLooney]

In #57001, there was some concern about the semantics of Go build tags changing meaning in a subtle way. We could address that by only applying the new semantics in .ʕ◔ϖ◔ʔ files. Older toolchains already have code to ignore those.

There were similar concerns in the discussion #56010 about changing the semantics of for loops. The new .ʕ◔ϖ◔ʔ provides an answer: .go files get the old for loop semantics, while .ʕ◔ϖ◔ʔ get the new semantics.

For long-term migration, go fix can rename .go files to .ʕ◔ϖ◔ʔ

IMHO, for this purpose, using numbers like .go2, .go3, ... would make more sense. What if we want yet another new semantics after .ʕ◔ϖ◔ʔ becomes the default?

We use the gold silver bronze emoji for that. Or the regional indicator 1/2/etc.

ʕ◔ϖ◔ʔ🥇``ʕ◔ϖ◔ʔ1️⃣

[donuts-are-good]

Out of all the ideas that should never happen, this one should never happen the most. I'm embarrassed on behalf of the community that this type of but-us-too stuff got posted. I'd expect this from other communities, but not us.

[irateswami]

Uhhhh it's May 4th, little late for April fools jokes, no?

[christophberger]

Uhhhh it's May 4th, little late for April fools jokes, no?

Oh c'mon, don't kill the fun 😁

[christophberger]

This proposal is so fundamental that I wonder why this was not filed in 2009 already.

I also second this extension to the proposal by u/GrayFox89:

We need support for build flags too:

• main_linux.go -> main_🐧.ʕ◔ϖ◔ʔ
• main_windows.go -> main_🏠.ʕ◔ϖ◔ʔ
• main_darwin.go -> main_🍏.ʕ◔ϖ◔ʔ

[quenbyako]

Easter eggs are always great 🐣

Emojis are amazing even more 🥳

[alexcb]

and hello_test.go could alternatively be named hello.(╯°□°)╯︵ ┻━┻

edit: this convention should only be used for mislabeled "unit tests" that interact with a database.

[mark-pictor-csec]

and hello_test.go could alternatively be named hello.(╯°□°)╯︵ ┻━┻

Does this only apply to table-driven tests, or is it acceptable for a file named like this to contain any style of test?

(edit) This naming convention implies that the table is being driven. We may need to find an alternate where the table is in control... 🤔

[donuts-are-good]

I'm calling the cops. This is bullshit.

[tliron]

We've been maintaining a downstream fork of Go that supports the .¯\_(ツ)_/¯ extension. This fits our wing-and-a-prayer ethos that is averse to any kind of code testing coverage. If the code works, well, then that's just wonderful, innit.

[ancientlore]

This is why I □ Unicode. :-)

[zephyrtronium]

IMHO, for this purpose, using numbers like .go2, .go3, ... would make more sense. What if we want yet another new semantics after .ʕ◔ϖ◔ʔ becomes the default?

I think it's fine for the gopher to become progressively more menacing:

1. .ʕ◔ϖ◔ʔ
2. .ʕ◉ϖ◉ʔ
3. .ʕ👁ϖ👁ʔ

and so on. Makes sense to me.

[osen]

Yet another great innovation from Go that I want to see backported to Plan 9!

If we can get the Plan 9 flavor C compiler to support a Glenda bunny-like suffix (🐇), I know my personal efficiency will increase.

[thediveo]

Why stop at the .go extension?

• go.work: ʕ◔ϖ◔ʔ.⚒
• go.sum: ʕ◔ϖ◔ʔ.💶, with support for R13N
• go.mod: ʕ◔ϖ◔ʔ.🧩

[AndrewHarrisSPU]

I would recommend trademarking ʕ◔ϖ◔ʔ, and always-on telemetry in the toolchain to discover possible cases of infringement. (just kidding!)

[lpar]

It should clearly be ʕ◔ϖ◔ʔlang to make web searches work better.

[rsc]

Retracting. This was fun but not a serious proposal. 😄

My apologies to those who were concerned we would actually introduce this kind of unnecessary ambiguity, complexity, and churn. 💩

Have a great weekend everyone. 🎉

Congrats again to Mojo on their launch. Hope to see you in the open-source world soon. 🔥

[aschenmaker]

IMHO, for this purpose, using numbers like .go2, .go3, ... would make more sense. What if we want yet another new semantics after .ʕ◔ϖ◔ʔ becomes the default?

I think it's fine for the gopher to become progressively more menacing:

1. .ʕ◔ϖ◔ʔ
2. .ʕ◉ϖ◉ʔ
3. .ʕ👁ϖ👁ʔ

and so on. Makes sense to me.

3, is perfect. wow

[lly-ke]

Not easy to identify

[qingtao]

I don't even know how to type this symbol right now.

[lattner]

This seems like a great idea to me Russ! I agree with ^^ that .ʕ👁ϖ👁ʔ would be more visually appealing though. 🔥

[demo-pzx]

ʕ👁ϖ👁ʔ ʕ👁ϖ👁ʔ ʕ👁ϖ👁ʔ

[784871129]

ʕ👁ϖ👁ʔ ʕ👁ϖ👁ʔ ʕ👁ϖ👁ʔ

[paralin]

ʕ👁ϖ👁ʔ

To everyone who thought this wasn't a joke: how did you miss "For long-term migration, go fix can rename .go files to .ʕ◔ϖ◔ʔ" 😂😂

[d100972]

ʕ⊙ω⊙ʔ

[notonlyericy]

“gopher” is gonna be real gopher 🤓 hhhhhhh

[caiyaonan]

Don't use copy, How to input this symbol

[la3rence]

真会玩😅 再补充两个
swift: .
next.js: .▲

[as]

ʕ⊙益ºʔ

[interrrp]

We could probably use 🧪_ instead of test_ too. 🧪_unicode_file_paths.ʕ◔ϖ◔ʔ would absolutely NEVER fail.

[CompuRoot]

Yeah, why strong typed languages, exact meaning definition using alphabet, let's go stone age way

[fwielstra]

We should also build a new filesystem that supports multiline filenames, so we can be even more expressive in file naming.

main. ´.-::::::-.´
  .:-::::::::::::::-:.
  ´_:::    ::    :::_´
   .:( ^   :: ^   ):.
   ´:::   (..)   :::.
   ´:::::::UU:::::::´
   .::::::::::::::::.
   O::::::::::::::::O
   -::::::::::::::::-
   ´::::::::::::::::´
    .::::::::::::::.
      oO:::::::Oo

[AriehSchneier]

I think if this proposal is accepted, we should probably go the full mile and also publish binaries as ʕ◔ϖ◔ʔ.

ʕ◔ϖ◔ʔ run main.ʕ◔ϖ◔ʔ

elegance.

So you suggest we go the full mile and then fell short! Your example should look like:

ʕ◔ϖ◔ʔ 🏃 🦁.ʕ◔ϖ◔ʔ

[vcastellm]

First a request should be raised to include Gopher as an emoji https://unicode.org/emoji/proposals.html

Then:

[CompuRoot]

First a request should be raised to include Gopher as an emoji https://unicode.org/emoji/proposals.html

Then:

And the second, - start producing keyboards with emojies

[AnthonyMikh]

I think we should also look into past and adopt .went extension for outdated versions of Go.

[lpar]

We should also build a new filesystem that supports multiline filenames, so we can be even more expressive in file naming.

I have good news regarding Linux and macOS...

package main

import (
	"fmt"
	"os"
	"path/filepath"
)

const filename = `main.
    ´.-::::::-.´
.:-::::::::::::::-:.
´_:::    ::    :::_´
 .:( ^   :: ^   ):.
 ´:::   (..)   :::.
 ´:::::::UU:::::::´
 .::::::::::::::::.
 O::::::::::::::::O
 -::::::::::::::::-
 ´::::::::::::::::´
  .::::::::::::::.
    oO:::::::Oo`

func main() {
	fname := filepath.Join(os.TempDir(), filename)
	fp, err := os.Create(fname)
	if err != nil {
		panic(err)
	}
	fp.Close()

	info, err := os.Stat(fname)
	if err != nil {
		panic(err)
	}
	fmt.Println(info.Name())
}