Golang Tutorial
Go Language Introduction
Go is a modern language, which is generally known as the Go Language. It is a procedural language and nearly similar to the C language, but comes with a more powerful and standard library. The syntax of the Go language is quite similar to C; the only difference is that Go has got some extra features in comparison to C Language. Unlike other languages such as C++ and Java, Go take less compilation time.
It is specially designed to work with large projects. It is a very simple and clear language. Go language is an open-source programming language, which was developed and introduced in the market for providing scalability to the program. In other words, Go language is a combination of an interpreted dynamic language and compiled static language, extensively used by the Google corporation.
History
Go language was developed by Robert Griesemer, Rob Pike, and Ken Thompson in 2007 at Google. Ken Thompson is the only person who has not implemented and designed the UNIX but also developed the B Language.
Go is designed to improve the productivity of programs. Addressing the cons of C++ and other languages, the designers of the Go language has enlisted some of the useful Go features:
- Run time efficiency and static typing of C++
- Readability and usability of python and JavaScript
- A large network with higher performance
- multiprocessing
Why developed
As we all know, Go Language is designed and supported by Google. Earlier, Google used C++ and Java to solve their problems, and since Google has one of the world's largest cloud infrastructures, it has massive scalability. After a while, developers got some problems while maintaining the scalability and effectiveness at the same time in the program, so they decided to design a new language. Thus the go language came into the world.
Thus, the Go language is more recommended for creating scalable and sufficient project.
Why learn
If you are going to learn any language, then you must know the pros and cons of that language before starting with it. It becomes necessary for you to know why you are going to learn a specific language. Every language has its features and characteristics; likewise, GoLang also has its special qualities. In the last eight years from its initial release, it has made its market value. Following are a few points related to Go Language that tells us why to learn GoLang:
- Most demanding: It is the most demanding language developed at Google. Most companies, such as Google, Adobe, IBM, Intel, Uber, Twitch, Dailymotion, SendGrid, Dropbox, SoundCloud, etc., prefer to use the Go language.
- Less competition: Since it is new in the market, it has a few Go developers available in the market, which is why it possesses less competition in comparison to any other language. But in very little time, this figure is going to change because it is the minimalist language and its concurrency mechanism makes it very easy to write a program. Its novel type system provides more flexibility to develop a program in modular programming.
- Bright future: Since Go language is the combination of a static compiled and dynamic interpreted language, it is has become one of the most desirable languages in the market, and if you are a Go Developer, then your future is very bright.
- Scalability: You can create large projects with Go Language very efficiently.
- Easy to learn: You can learn the Go language very easily. If you have a little bit of knowledge of the C language (mainly syntax) and a bit about object-oriented programming, it will become easier for you to learn the Go language.
Versions of the GoLang
Go Lang was designed in 2007 by Google, but it was properly introduced in the market in November 2009. As of now, there are 15 versions of GoLang in the market. Every version comes with some new and some updated features. Here is the list of its full released version with its release date:
Version 1.0: It is the first version, and it was released on 28th March 2012.
Version 1.1: This updated version was released on 13th May 2013.
Version 1.2: This updated version was released on 1st December 2013.
Version 1.3: This updated version was released on 18th June 2014.
Version 1.4: This updated version was released on 10th December 2014.
Version 1.5: This updated version was released on 19th August 2015.
Version 1.6: This updated version was released on 17th February 2016.
Version 1.7: This updated version was released on 15th August 2016.
Version 1.8: This updated version was released on 16th February 2017.
Version 1.9: This updated version was released on 24th August 2017.
Version 1.10: This updated version was released on 16th February 2018.
Version 1.11: This updated version was released on 24th August 2018.
Version 1.12: This updated version was released on 25th February 2019.
Version 1.13: This updated version was released on 3rd September 2019.
Version 1.14: This updated version was released on 25th February 2020.
Version 1.15: This updated version was released on 11th August 2020.
Current Version: The recent version is version 1.15, released on 11th August 2020. It is also a stable version.
You can also update your GoLang to its specific release by using the following command:
git fetch – tags
git checkout goX. Y. Z
Here, X. Y. Z is the serial number of the version that you want to update.
Release policy of GoLang
The Go language has its own releasing policy. It discards its older versions after releasing two major updated versions. In other words, each major release will not support the system after undergoing two major go updates.
Example: Go 1.0 will be supported in your system only until the release of Go 1.2, and Go 1.1 will support in your system before the release of Go 1.3
Similarly, Go 1.15 will be supported in your system until the release of Go 1.17, and currently, you can use only Go 1.14 and Go 1.15 versions. The rest of the versions are discarded and will not support in your system.
The moral is that you can use the latest version and its previous version only. If you are not updating your Go version, then after getting two updates, you will not be able to use it. Please take a look at the release date of its versions in the versions list; as GoLang is providing two updates every year, it is clear that you will have to update your Go version every year.
Characteristics of GoLang
The characteristics of the go language are given below:
- Open Source: The go language is an open-source programming language, which means any developer can download the source code and experiment with it to make it better. You can fix the bugs related to its source code and add new features to its library.
- Free of cost: The go language is free of cost. It does not demand money from its users. You can download it and use it without spending a single rupee.
- Simplicity: It is also one of the main characteristics of go language. The go language is known for its simplicity; even it was created by developers to keep simplicity in their minds, but it also has more powerful features.
- Easy to code: Coding in the go language is very easy. The syntax of this language is mostly the same as the syntax of the C language. You don't need to put a comma at the end of every statement; you have to follow the syntax strictly.
- Less compilation time: Go language takes less compilation time than other languages, which makes its performance better. It also reduces the time of delivering the project from company to market.
- Case sensitive: Go language is a case sensitive language.