Unless dynamic linking is used, or OS APIs change between version, or specific O...

pkolaczk · on Sept 17, 2023

Go binaries are traditionally statically compiled.

pjmlp · on Sept 17, 2023

Hence my 2nd and 3rd points.

Also DNS uses dynamic linking unless configured otherwise, while being OS specific, then that are the libraries that rely on cgo.

ashishb · on Sept 17, 2023

Yeah, you can list 100 such cases.

Let me tell you the most common scenario. I have a fairly popular FOSS CLI tool written in Python. I cannot use the features from the latest version of Python or else I will alienate ~50% of the userbase. This problem does not exist with Rust or Go.

This problem would have existed for Java on Android except Google took the burden of "desugaring" the Java 17 code -> Java 8 compatible bytecode for the old devices.

kaba0 · on Sept 17, 2023

Google dug their own grave here, Java is as backwards and forward compatible as it gets.

lern_too_spel · on Sept 18, 2023

You cannot run Java 17 code on a Java 8 runtime without "desugaring."