What is Go?

• Go is a cross-platform, open source programming language
• Go can be used to create high-performance applications
• Go is a fast, statically typed, compiled language that feels like a dynamically typed, interpreted language
• Go was developed at Google by Robert Griesemer, Rob Pike, and Ken Thompson in 2007
• Go's syntax is similar to C++

What is Go Used For?

• Web development (server-side)
• Developing network-based programs
• Developing cross-platform enterprise applications
• Cloud-native development

Why Use Go?

• Go is fun and easy to learn
• Go has fast run time and compilation time
• Go supports concurrency
• Go has memory management
• Go works on different platforms (Windows, Mac, Linux, Raspberry Pi, etc.)

Go Compared to Python and C++

Go	Python	C++
Statically typed	Dynamically typed	Statically typed
Fast run time	Slow run time	Fast run time
Compiled	Interpreted	Compiled
Fast compile time	Interpreted	Slow compile time
Supports concurrency through goroutines and channel	No built-in concurrency mechanism	Supports concurrency through threads
Has automatic garbage collection	Has automatic garbage collection	Does not have automatic garbage collection
Does not support classes and objects	Has classes and objects	Has classes and objects
Does not support inheritance	Supports inheritance	Supports inheritance

Notes:

·         Compilation time refers to translating the code into an executable program

·         Concurrency is performing multiple things out-of-order, or at the same time, without affecting the final outcome

·         Statically typed means that the variable types are known at compile time

Get Started

This tutorial will teach you the basics of Go.

It is not necessary to have any prior programming experience.