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