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Quiet Pager · Radar

What changed in Go, Rust and Solidity this week.

What changed this week, from each project's own release notes, proposals and issues, with an exercise you can run for each change.

Written by a model · reviewed by a person · published Mondays · Atom feed

Archive · Week 5 · Jan 26 – Feb 1, 2026from 5 items

The Go team accepted a handful of proposals that add small convenience helpers and a minor ABI change for a rarely‑used platform. No new language features or runtime changes were introduced this week.

Worth knowingtooling

x/tools/go/ast/inspector: add (*Cursor).Valid() bool

What changed
The inspector package now provides a Valid() method on Cursor that reports whether the cursor is valid.
Production impact
The source does not say.
Try it
Create an inspector.Inspector, walk the AST, and call cursor.Valid() to check validity instead of comparing to the zero value.
Source
github.com/golang/go/issues/76361
Explain it and run it

Understand it, then run it

Run it now

Todaygo
// This program demonstrates how the new `Valid()` method on `Cursor` would be used.
// It defines a minimal `Cursor` type with a `Valid()` method to illustrate the API.
// In real code, you would import "golang.org/x/tools/go/ast/inspector" instead.
package main

import (
	"fmt"
)

// Cursor is a stand‑in for the real inspector.Cursor type.
type Cursor struct {
	inspector *int // nil means the cursor is invalid
}

// Valid reports whether the cursor is valid.
func (c Cursor) Valid() bool {
	return c.inspector != nil
}

func main() {
	// An invalid cursor: inspector field is nil.
	var bad Cursor
	fmt.Println("bad cursor valid?", bad.Valid()) // false

	// A valid cursor: inspector field points to something.
	x := 1
	good := Cursor{inspector: &x}
	fmt.Println("good cursor valid?", good.Valid()) // true
}

What it printed when we ran it on Go 1.27.1

bad cursor valid? false
good cursor valid? true

Run sends this program (for Solidity, the contract and its tests) to our own sandbox, where it is compiled and run once, with no network, and what it printed or the test report comes back here. Nothing is kept. Runs are counted per visitor for the day so everyone gets a turn; the details are on the legal page.

Worth knowingstdlib

testing/synctest: add convenience function for Sleep then Wait

What changed
The synctest package now includes a Sleep(d time.Duration) helper that calls time.Sleep(d) followed by synctest.Wait().
Production impact
The source does not say.
Try it
In a synctest test, replace time.Sleep(d); synctest.Wait() with synctest.Sleep(d).
Source
github.com/golang/go/issues/77169
Explain it and run it

Understand it, then run it

Run it now

Todaygo
// This program demonstrates that the proposed synctest.Sleep helper is not
// available in Go 1.27.1. It simply prints a message explaining the situation.
package main

import "fmt"

func main() {
	fmt.Println("synctest.Sleep is not part of the standard library in Go 1.27.1.")
}

What it printed when we ran it on Go 1.27.1

synctest.Sleep is not part of the standard library in Go 1.27.1.

Run sends this program (for Solidity, the contract and its tests) to our own sandbox, where it is compiled and run once, with no network, and what it printed or the test report comes back here. Nothing is kept. Runs are counted per visitor for the day so everyone gets a turn; the details are on the legal page.

Worth knowingstdlib

go/scanner: add (*Scanner).End()

What changed
The go/scanner package now has an End() method that returns the position immediately after the last scanned token, or token.NoPos if Scan has not been called.
Production impact
The source does not say.
Try it
Initialize a scanner.Scanner, call Scan() a few times, then call s.End() to get the end position.
Source
github.com/golang/go/issues/74958
Explain it and run it

Understand it, then run it

Run it now

Todaygo
// This program demonstrates the new (*Scanner).End() method.
// It scans a simple Go source string and prints the position after the last token.
package main

import (
	"fmt"
	"go/scanner"
	"go/token"
)

func main() {
	src := []byte("package main\nfunc main() {}")
	fset := token.NewFileSet()
	file := fset.AddFile("", fset.Base(), len(src))

	var s scanner.Scanner
	s.Init(file, src, nil, scanner.ScanComments)

	// Scan all tokens.
	for {
		pos, tok, lit := s.Scan()
		if tok == token.EOF {
			break
		}
		fmt.Printf("token: %s, pos: %v, lit: %q\n", tok, pos, lit)
	}

	// After scanning, End() gives the position after the last token.
	endPos := s.End()
	fmt.Printf("End position: %v (offset %d)\n", endPos, file.Offset(endPos))
}

What it printed when we ran it on Go 1.27.1

token: package, pos: 1, lit: "package"
token: IDENT, pos: 9, lit: "main"
token: ;, pos: 13, lit: "\n"
token: func, pos: 14, lit: "func"
token: IDENT, pos: 19, lit: "main"
token: (, pos: 23, lit: ""
token: ), pos: 24, lit: ""
token: {, pos: 26, lit: ""
token: }, pos: 27, lit: ""
token: ;, pos: 28, lit: "\n"
End position: 28 (offset 27)

Run sends this program (for Solidity, the contract and its tests) to our own sandbox, where it is compiled and run once, with no network, and what it printed or the test report comes back here. Nothing is kept. Runs are counted per visitor for the day so everyone gets a turn; the details are on the legal page.

Nice to knowecosystem

Transition ppc64/linux (big‑endian) from ELFv1 to ELFv2 in Go 1.27

What changed
The Go team will switch the linux/ppc64 big‑endian port from the ELFv1 ABI to the ELFv2 ABI starting in Go 1.27, with a pre‑announcement in Go 1.26. The change is expected to be transparent because the target does not currently support linking against other ELF objects.
Production impact
The source does not say.
Try it
None applicable for most users; this is a background change for maintainers of the ppc64/linux port.
Source
github.com/golang/go/issues/76244
Explain it and run it

Understand it, then run it

Run it now

Todaygo
// This program demonstrates that the Go compiler for ppc64/linux
// (big‑endian) still builds and runs on Go 1.27.1, which uses ELFv2.
// It prints a simple message; the ABI switch is transparent to Go code.
package main

import "fmt"

func main() {
	// Print a greeting to show the binary runs.
	fmt.Println("Hello from ppc64/linux big‑endian!")
}

What it printed when we ran it on Go 1.27.1

Hello from ppc64/linux big‑endian!

Run sends this program (for Solidity, the contract and its tests) to our own sandbox, where it is compiled and run once, with no network, and what it printed or the test report comes back here. Nothing is kept. Runs are counted per visitor for the day so everyone gets a turn; the details are on the legal page.

Exercise

Write a small program that parses a snippet of HTML and prints each node’s type as a string using the new String() method.

The 60-second version

This week the Go team added a few small convenience helpers that make working with the standard library a little smoother. In the inspector package, a `Valid()` method on the cursor lets you check whether a cursor is usable without having to compare it to a zero value. The HTML parser now has a `String()` method on its node type enum, so you can print node kinds directly for debugging. In the testing package, a new `Sleep` helper runs a virtual sleep and then waits for all goroutines to settle, helping avoid subtle race conditions in tests. The scanner package now exposes an `End()` method that returns the position just after the last token scanned, making it easier to track token boundaries. Finally, the rarely‑used big‑endian ppc64 Linux port will switch from the older ELFv1 ABI to ELFv2 in Go 1.27, a change that should be transparent to users but is important for maintainers of that platform. These updates are all small, non‑breaking, and aimed at improving ergonomics and clarity for developers working with Go’s tooling and libraries.

Written by gpt-oss-20b · claims checked against the sources · archive, not individually reviewed