A Beginners Introduction To Golang
AN OVERVIEW OF GO & LEARNING RESOURCES
TABLE OF CONTENTS
- What is Go?
- Why Go?
- Where to use Go?
- Installing Go.
- A simple “Hello World” program.
- Go learning resources.
WHAT IS GO
Lately, Go a.k.a Golang has been a buzzword and a preferred programming language by many developers and startups. Companies like Discord, Google, Netflix, Spotify, Uber e.t.c use Go to power their apps and services. While most of these companies use Go for their backend, others use it for their APIs other numerous applications because of its speed and simplicity.
Developed by Robert Griesemer, Rob Pike, and Ken Thompson at Google and published November 10, 2009, Golang is a statically typed(the variables are known at compile time), compiled(translates syntax directly into machine code) language inspired by the C(speed) and Python(readability) programming languages.
WHY GO?
Here are a few reasons why you want to get started writing the Go programming language.
- Fast and Efficient.
- Supports Concurrency.
- Quick Compilation.
- Easy to learn and use e.t.c.
WHERE TO USE GO?
Go is best suited for the following applications…
- Building APIs.
- Blockchain Development.
- Cloud and Network services.
- Command-Line interfaces
- Web Development
- Web Assembly.
- Large Complex Projects.
- DevOps applications e.t.c.
HELLO WORLD PROGRAM IN GO.
The program below outputs the string “Hello World”
package main
import "fmt"func main(){fmt.Println("Hello World")
}
Every Go program must begin with the package declaration. package main instructs the compiler to run the file as an executable.
We proceed to import fmt which stands for format package. fmt is a library that allows users to format strings, integers e.t.c.
The main function is the beginning point for every Go program.
fmt.Println output the specified values on a new line.
INSTALLING GOLANG ON LINUX
Installing Golang is easy. Download the Go installer for your operating system using one of the links below.
The Go website contains easy-to-follow instructions to install Golang across various operating systems. Link here.
NON-PAID GO LEARNING RESOURCES
WEB DOCS
- Go by Example(Recommended).
- Go documentation.
- Brymes Golang Cheat Sheet(Recommended).
- Exercism.org.
- Go Web Examples(Recommended)
- Tutorials point.
- Sololearn(Recommended).
- Codecademy(Recommended).
- Learnxinyminutes.
YOUTUBE VIDEOS
- Edureka.
- Tech with Tim(Recommended).
- Programming Knowledge.
- The Net Ninja(Recommended).
- Sentdex.
- Nic Jackson.
Enjoy your Golang journey. You can always hit me up for help or project collaborations on Twitter.
