Weak Pointers in Go: Implementation Deep Dive
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Целевая аудитория
Тезисы
Go's weak pointer implementation looks deceptively simple: 'Make' and 'Value', that's it. But underneath lies an elegant design involving indirection objects, a handle table, careful GC integration, and an equality guarantee that no other major language provides. How does 'wp1 == wp2' remain true after the object is collected? Why is the indirection object exactly 8 bytes? How does the GC know when to zero the pointer without causing races?
This talk dissects the implementation: the indirection layer that makes equality stable, the handle table that enables efficient lookups, the GC write barrier integration, and why generics were required for a type-safe API. We'll read the actual runtime code and understand the design constraints that shaped each decision.
Alex is a Senior Staff Engineer at Stone, where he builds developer platforms and internal tools that empower engineering teams across the organization. With 17+ years of experience, he's the author of System Programming Essentials with Go and Learning Zig, and writes about staff engineering and systems thinking on Substack and his personal blog.
Alex speaks regularly at international conferences and is passionate about data-oriented design, making complex systems understandable, and helping engineers grow into technical leadership roles.
