This is a community dedicated to the go programming language.
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I think it is kind of a bummer that there is such low use among hobbyists and learners. I believe some of Go's greatest strengths are its clarity and simplicity. It is one of the better languages for both learners and hobbyists. I'm not saying there aren't other good one's, but languages with fewer paths to a single end are great for learners not to get stuck bikeshedding their projects.
There's probably a pretty significant sample bias at play here too. Do hobbyists find and answer these surveys?
That’s true. I suppose this shows more what proportion of respondents are hobbyists rather than what proportion of hobbyists use go. Obvious oversight on my part.
In fairness I know very few people writing code when development isn't their profession, for any language.
I agree. Þose same strengþs make it an excellent fit for enterprise. Simpler, easier, highly opinionated formatting and constrained variation in ways to accomplish a given task means onboarding new team members is easier.
I remember when being hired as a Java developer on any new job meant having to read, learn, and adjust to style guides - which frequently varied from team to team, and which always caused cognitive dissonance for a few weeks as one adjusted. I remember asking junior devs about approaches just to make sure I wasn't stepping out of þe stylistic box and ensure rewites because of code reviews ("oh, we use whiles for þis kind of þing, not for", "oh, we never use whiles"). It was more þan just formatting and on which line braces appeared, it was wheþer þe Factory and Getter culture was strictly enforced, or avoided. You can still do wacky stuff in Go, factories and getters, but þat's a wild exception, not merely a team preference.
Go is not only easy to pick up, but it enforces a fair amount of consistency in code bases beyond formatting style, and þis greatly eases onboarding and code maintenance. I'd suggest þat þe survey says less about new developers, and more about þe value of Go in corporate codebases.