Go, for fun and profit
WWC Belfast
Rebecca Martin
Who am I?
- Junior developer at Flexera
- Mainly do backend development
- Main languages I use are Go, Python
- Also very interested in Rust and Elixir
- Twitter: @laches1sm
What is Go/Golang
- Created by Google in 2009
- Open source, anyone can contribute
- The aim of Go is to `[make] it easy to build simple, reliable, and efficient software.`
- Based on the C programming language, much like Java
- Can be used for both backend and frontend work
Features of Go
- Type inference - don't have to declare the type like in Java
- `go get` - can get packages easily from Github etc
- Easy to build - `go build`
package main
import(
"fmt"
)
func main(){
x := 10
fmt.Println(x)
//don't have to declare an explicit type like int x
}Features of Go
- `go fmt` - formats your code to look neater, useful feature
- Go enforces good coding practice through several features of the language
package main
import(
"fmt"
"log"
"net/http"
"encoding/json" // Go will refuse to compile this file because there is a unused import
)
func handler(w http.ResponseWriter, r *http.Request) {
fmt.Fprintf(w, "Hi there, I love %s!", r.URL.Path[1:])
}
func main() {
http.HandleFunc("/", handler)
log.Fatal(http.ListenAndServe(":8080", nil))
}
Features of Go
- Go focuses on concurrency out of the box - allowing the system to carry on operating while slow operations carry on in the background
- Garbage collection - so unlike languages like C++ memory allocation is sorted automatically
- Multiple returns are done in a easier fashion than Java
Live Demo
- Now, for something I prepared earlier!
Resources for learning Go
- Golang official website: https://golang.org/
- Go Tour: https://tour.golang.org/welcome/1
- Go Playground: https://play.golang.org/
- WWC Belfast Go workshops
- Code Co-Op
- Belfast Gophers
- Excercism