Go or Golang is a programming language created by Robert Griesemer, Rob Pike, and Ken Thompson at Google.
Go is a statically typed and compiled language that incorporates features from several programming languages, including C. Its design includes features such as memory safety, garbage collection, and structural typing, which provide security and convenience.
Go is beginner-friendly, especially for those familiar with C. It’s also efficient for large-scale projects, making it a reliable choice. While Go is often referred to as Golang, its original name is simply Go.
Google provides two Go implementations: the GC compiler toolchain, which targets multiple operating systems including WebAssembly, and Gofrontend, which enables programmers to handle frontend coding for various compilers such as GCC.
Gofrontend can be used with the libgo library, GCC, or a combination of the two, making it easier for programmers to compile websites and manage their code.
History of Golang
Go, a programming language originally developed by Google in 2007, was created with the goal of improving programming productivity in the context of modern computing environments characterized by multi-core processors, network connectivity, and large codebases. The designers of Go sought to address criticisms of other programming languages used at Google while retaining useful features from those languages.
Go incorporates several features from other programming languages, including static typing and run-time efficiency from C, ease of use from Python and JavaScript, and support for high-performance networking and multiprocessing.
In 2016, the Go team released a set of mono fonts specifically designed for Go projects, and in 2018, they updated the Go logo with a more attractive design featuring the Gopher mascot.
Despite its early success, some programmers have criticized the Go language in recent years for not receiving enough support from Google and lacking certain features they would like to see.
However, the language continues to evolve and offers a combination of convenience features and classic programming language capabilities, with a focus on ease of use and efficiency.
Reasons to Choose Go Programming Language
So, what advantages does the Go programming language offer? It’s a beginner-friendly language that’s easy to use and supported by Google. Additionally, there’s plenty of help available from a growing community of Go developers, making it easier to learn from scratch and become proficient.
It was created to provide a simple, efficient, and highly scalable programming language that could be used for system-level programming as well as web development.
Here are some of the key characteristics of the Go programming language:
- Simplicity – The Go programming language is designed to be simple and easy to learn. Its syntax is concise and easy to understand, making it an ideal language for beginners.
- Concurrency – Go has built-in support for concurrency, which allows multiple tasks to be executed simultaneously. This feature makes it an ideal language for developing concurrent applications and services.
- Efficiency – Go is a compiled language, which means that it is highly efficient and can run on a wide range of platforms. It also has a garbage collector that automatically manages memory allocation and deallocation, which can help to prevent memory leaks.
- Cross-Platform – Go is a cross-platform programming language, which means that it can be used to develop applications for a wide range of operating systems and platforms, including Linux, macOS, Windows, and Android.
- Strong Typing – Go is a statically typed language, which means that variables must be declared with a specific data type.
- Open Source – Go is an open-source programming language, which means that its source code is freely available for anyone to use, modify, and distribute.
- Built-in Testing – Go has built-in testing support, which makes it easy to write and run unit tests for your code.
- Fast Compilation – Go has a fast compilation speed, which means that code changes can be quickly compiled and tested.
- Scalability – Go is designed to be highly scalable, making it an ideal language for developing large-scale applications and services.
- Safety – Go has built-in safety features, such as memory safety and bounds checking, which help to prevent common programming errors such as buffer overflows and null pointer dereferences.
What Can Golang be Used For?
When starting out with Golang, it’s important to note that while it shows promise, its usage is still somewhat limited due to its youth. However, Golang can be incredibly useful in certain scenarios.
For example, if you’re working at a startup and your user base is rapidly growing, your back-end and front-end programs may struggle to keep up with the volume of activity. This is where Golang can shine – its ability to support concurrency functions and its small memory footprint make it ideal for back-end development that needs to handle heavy requests.
In fact, Dropbox is one of the best cloud storage companies out there, and they use Golang to manage more than 500 million users. So, while there are some limitations to what Golang can do, it’s still an incredibly powerful tool.
So, what can Golang be used for? Here are a few examples:
- Building scalable, secure web applications.
- Building complex systems that require high performance.
- Writing network server code, including web servers and microservices.
- Building a scalable developer team, both in startups and corporate companies.
- Creating a scalable cloud computing system.
Overall, Golang has a lot of potential and is well worth learning if you’re interested in back-end development or want to create high-performance applications.
Why Choose To Learn Go Programming
There are several reasons why you might choose to learn Go programming:
- Efficiency – Go is known for its efficient memory management and concurrency features, which make it well-suited for building high-performance applications that can handle heavy loads.
- Easy to Learn – Compared to some other programming languages, Go is relatively easy to learn, especially for those who already have experience with languages like C or Python.
- Growing Popularity – Go has been steadily increasing in popularity over the past few years, with many companies choosing to adopt it for their back-end development needs. As a result, there is a growing demand for developers who are proficient in Go.
- Strong Community – Go has a large and active community of developers who contribute to the language’s development, create libraries and tools, and provide support to others who are learning the language.
- Open Source – Go is an open-source language, meaning that it is free to use and modify. This makes it a great choice for both personal and professional projects, as there are no licensing costs or restrictions.
Overall, learning Go can be a valuable skill for anyone interested in back-end development, high-performance computing, or building scalable applications.
How to Learn Golang Programming Language
If you are interested in learning the Go programming language, there are numerous resources available to help you get started. The official Go website is a great place to start, as it offers a variety of learning materials and tutorials for beginners and experienced programmers alike.
Whether you are completely new to coding or an experienced programmer looking to learn a new language, Go provides comprehensive learning resources to suit your needs.
In this series on Go programming, we will begin learning the language from the very basics, with a step-by-step approach that includes numerous examples and exercises. Our aim is to provide a comprehensive understanding of Go programming, making it easy for you to grasp the language’s core concepts and features.
Here is the list of upcoming Go Lang topics that we’re going to cover in this series:
Conclusion
In conclusion, the Go programming language is a reliable choice for developers who want to build large-scale projects efficiently. Go incorporates features from several programming languages, making it beginner-friendly and easy to use, especially for those familiar with C.
It also offers several advantages, including being an open-source language, being supported by Google, providing concurrency, and having a rich set of libraries. The language has a growing community of developers and offers comprehensive learning resources for programmers of all levels.
While its usage may still be limited, Golang has shown promise in scenarios that require handling heavy requests, making it a powerful tool for building scalable and secure web applications, complex systems, network servers, and cloud computing systems.
