Introduction to Go

for JavaScript Developers

Scott Ernst

/sernst/GoIntro

My Perspective

I'm not an expert Gopher

• I write Go for production work
• Still learning

Plan: Comparative Examples

• Syntax
• Hello World
• Existing Data Types
• Custom Data Types
• Reading JSON
• Concurrency
• Simple HTTP Server

(

vs

)

Not a battle for supremacy

!

Core Packages Only

Focusing on the Fundamentals

$ go get ...

$ npm install ...

require('path')

import "path"

Go is like C and Python had a kid

Good Looks

Pleasant Demeanor

Confidence

Athletic Ability

http://golang-for-python-programmers.readthedocs.org/en/latest/intro.html

"C for the 21st Century"

A Melting Pot of "Good Ideas"

• Statically typed

• Compiled

• C/Java syntax family

• Functional (closures & first class functions)

• Pointers (simplified compared to C)

• Concurrency

Go In A Nutshell

And Now

The Examples

/sernst/GoIntro

Hello World

Example:

• Define functions

• Pass variables

• Print to console

• Explicit type conversions

Start Example  ›

Variables & Functions

Example:

• Define variables

• Uninitialized "zero" values

• Functions that return values

• Closures

• Functions as variables

Start Example  ›

Arrays & Slices

Example:

• Define and populate arrays

• Passing by copy versus by reference

• Go slices like JavaScript arrays

Start Example  ›

Maps (Objects)

Example:

• Define and populate maps/objects

• Modifying by reference

Start Example  ›

Pointers

Example:

• * dereferencing operator
• & pointer creation operator
• Allow passing by reference
• Pointers share memory

Start Example  ›

Read JSON File

Example:

• Error handling
• File system utilities

Start Example  ›

Simple Web Server

Example:

• http package
• sending JSON data

Start Example  ›