Getting started with the Go programming language

With its popularity on a wild rise for several years in a row, Go is a  language worth spending some time with in your spare time.

Six months ago, I wrote my first Go program for a project at work and  I have been in love ever since.  While I would never advocate using the  language in a place where it doesn’t make sense, I don’t see a reason  why it wouldn’t be used in every place that it does.

If you want to get your feet wet, the best way to go is to take the  Go tour which provides a sandbox environment for you to interact with and try things out.  Check it out here: https://tour.golang.org/welcome/1

After that, you can use the playground any time to test out code or ideas (some limitations apply).  After  considering myself to be fairly well versed with a successfully deployed  Go program, I still use the playground regularly to test things out  before implementing them in my code.  It’s a wonderful little sandbox.

To dig deeper after the tour, the Golang team has created some great  and easily navigable documentation for setting you on your way.  For  project setup, check out How to Write Go Code.  For best practices and the recommended way of doing something in Go, you’ll do well to spend some time in Effective Go – a worthy read.

Last words: I suggest avoiding Stack Overflow for as long as you can  for Go.  Aim for the documentation first.  The Go team has created a set  of documentation and tools so useful for getting started that proper  answers on Stack Overflow are just going to point you right back to the Golang documentation or Golang packages for anything you do.  If an answer doesn’t point you there, it’s likely  pointing you away from the best practices or recommended ways of Go  which is not an enjoyable path – that has been my experience anyway.