What is Go?

Golang (aka G0) is a relatively new programming language developed by Google, and it that has taken the IT world by storm. It was released in 2009 and already some of the biggest applications are written in Go, including Docker, Terraform, and Kubernetes.

This is a series of bitesize tutorials that’ll help you get comfortable with using Golang. This course also requires you to have some experience with Linux, especially using the Bash terminal.

What makes Golang so great?

1. It’s a general purpose language - meaning that it can can be used for writing low level OS level components, which is usually done in C or C++. It’s also create for developing high level components such as creating web servers (e.g. caddy), which is usually done using Python, Ruby.
2. It’s cross platform - meaning that Golang can run on any Operating System, e.g. Windows, CentOS, OSX, etc.
3. It’s a compiled language - Once you’ve written your code, your code then gets compiled into an executable binary file. It also means the golang code you write can support several Operating Systems, so that you don’t need to have several versions of the various Operating Systems.
4. It’s super fast and efficient - The code is stored inside the executable binary files are written in the target OS’s own machine code. That means that the OS understands the code directly. It also means that your target machines doesn’t need to have golang installed in order to run the binary file.

Further reading

https://tour.golang.org/list

https://www.pluralsight.com/blog/software-development/golang-get-started

https://medium.com/exploring-code/why-should-you-learn-go-f607681fad65

https://go101.org/article/101.html

https://code.tutsplus.com/tutorials/12-indispensable-go-packages-and-libraries--cms-29008