What is Golang?

Golang(Go) is a programming language developed by Google in 2009. Since then Golang has made its way up to the top 10 most loved programming languages and the 2nd most paid programming language.

When I first learned Go I didn't expect it to be a hit. I thought it was just a faster Java or an alternative to Node.js. Even then it had a robust community but here are the reasons I and so many other developers love Go.

Golang Environment

The Golang environment is different than any other language. Its structured so that all Golang projects are in one folder. This folder is set as an environment variable as $GOPATH. The Golang environment is structured by 3 folders, bin, pkg, and src. The bin folder stores Golang Binary files such as the mux.exe router. It saves the builds and other scripts in here but its not something you need to touch. Pkg is where Golang stores the complier and other scripts it uses. In the final and main folder src, is where you put your projects. All packages downloaded and used are stored in src as well as where you can put your projects. All Imports in Golang are relative to $GOPATH\src which makes things very consistent and easy to change files to your need. Overall the Golang enviroment is something I much prefer over packages.json and or Pipfiles.

The Command Line

Golang commands are made simple. Want to get a package?
go get -u github.com/package/package
Want to run your code?
go run ./file.go
Want to compile your code?
go build ./file.go
Want to fetch the dependencies of a file
go install ./file.go

Overall the consistency and ease of use in the command line makes things easier and you can focus on other parts of the development process.

Modules and Tests

The way Golang handles tests without any external libraries makes it very easy to create tests. Just end a file with _test.go and then you can run go test to start the unit test. All modules in Golang are easy to access with the file structure and since Golang has no built in modular place you can use GitHub or anything other place you see fit to use Golang modules or packages.

Consistency in Golang

Golang offers a clear and concise way to write code. It has a built in formatter, fmt, that keeps strict standards in go. Unlike languages like JavaScript or Python Golang usually has a simple way to do things and structure code. This leads to overall cleaner code bases and prevents junior developers from writing unclean code because in Golang you have to write clean code. The compiler will not compile if a variable is not used. Golang has no exceptions which requires you to write code in a safe and clean way.

Golang is also typed which means you get better intellisense and catch errors before runtime. Golang doesn't support classes, operators, function overloading, optional parameters, or exceptions, requiring developers to write code in a clear and concise way. Golang isn't a functional language and it isn't an object oriented one either. It takes the best of both worlds and throws out the things that are bad to form an amazing language.

Concurrency and Speed

Save the best for last. Golang was built for concurrency in mind. You don't have to import something to do this it is built in. You can just use go.

go func() {
    fmt.Println("This is a simultaneous process")
}

This core concept allows developers to use things like channels and things you won't see in other languages to better utilize this concept. Recently this

article talks about how they were able to utilize 1 million requests per minute with Golang, more than any other language has seen with the exception of c++

Now did I mention Golang is fast? Crazy fast. Golang framework gofiber ran a speed test against similar framework Express(JavaScript Framework) and Golang was able to consistently handle requests on average 2.0 ms while Express had an average of 354 latency. Golang was able to handle 6,162,556 requests while Express could only handle 367,069 requests. That's 17x more requests compared to the most in use node framework today. You can learn more about this experiment with gofiber here. Golang compile time is also crazy fast which is why developers will run tests on every compile because they don't take long at all.

Golang's built in Libraries

Golang's built in library support is incredible and means you won't have to import excess modules like in Node. You can run a local server in just a few lines out of the box with net/http built in package. You are able to lookup a sites Nameservers, mx records, and CNAME with a built-in function. Typically when you build large projects you will only ever use one or two external packages which also dedicates to the speed and ease of use of Golang.

Golang is a major language and an amazing skill to add to your skillset. Its ease of use and speed are unrivaled and I believe you should learn Golang as a language.