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Go, also known as Golang, is an open-source, compiled, and statically typed programming language designed by Google. It is built to be simple, high-performing, readable, and efficient.
What's the Go or GoLang?
Golang is just another name for Go and Go remains the official name. Golang came from the domain name of the Go official website, golang.org. This is actually really helpful because “Golang” is much more searchable than "Go" on Google. So it makes life a little easier for those who might be looking for information on the programming language.
How It Came Into Being
In 2007, frustrated by some of the C++ inefficiencies and the overcomplicated nature, and desiring a programming language designed specifically for multi-core processors and effectively managing large projects, three Google engineers, Robert Griesemer, Rob Pike, and Ken Thompson, designed the Go language.
The goal was to build an improved C++ that was much easier to use Go was developed based on C’s disciplined syntax but also took inspiration from some of Python’s simplicity and Javascript’s useful features.
Gochi was announced to the public in 2009 and was made open source in 2012 when its first version 1.0 was released. Go quickly grew in popularity and became the first choice of many developers due to its simplicity, readability, functionality, and concurrent nature. Concurrent means it can perform multiple tasks at the same time.
Go is used for server-side programming, game development, cloud-based programming, and even data science. It is also popular for making command-line tools. It's no surprise that people like Kubernetes, Docker, and Hiroku are using Go because the main reason for designing Go is cloud-based programming.
GoLang is paid more and there is more Demand
10 years after the original open-source release of Go, Go is the second most paid language in the USA with average revenue of $140,000, one of the most beloved languages of programmers, and Go gods are in high demand.
Why GoLang Is Good?
- Simple Syntax & Easy To Learn
Go contains a small number of popular concepts inspired by other languages, designed to create the simplest possible code. This saves time scanning code to check it, as well as time saved writing less code.
- Golang is Fast
Go code is compiled and directly translated into processor-understandable formats. This makes it far faster than languages like Java that first need to compile into byte code, before executing it via a virtual machine.
Boasting small application sizes, Go binary files can be up to 10x smaller than their Java equivalent. This is especially notable for large applications deployed on multiple servers, heavily reducing file loading time and making for the much-improved performance. Go programs are lightweight, as Go runtimes clean up unused memory as extra code within the executable binary. This makes it easier to write memory-efficient Go code as the Go compiler has some spare code logic within each program.
What is GoLang bad for?
It was written for weak programmers, using the old language as a template. It comes complete with simple tools for doing simple things. It is easy to read and easy to use. It is incredibly verbose, lackluster, and bad for smart programmers.
What Is GoLang Used For?
- Infrastructure
Popular open-source tools like Kubernetes, Docker, and Prometheus are written in Go for container deployment, scaling, and management for running and bundling applications. Cloud service tools like Terraform and OpenShift are written in Go to offer additional cloud and deployment options, with OpenShift running on top of Kubernetes and used by companies such as KPMG to automate and enhance their AI workflows.
- Command-line interfaces
Companies like Comcast, GitHub, Stripe, and Uber use Go for their command-line interfaces. Comcast maintains an open-source client library written in Go, whereas Uber uses Go for CLI API for Jaeger.
- Web applications
Large web apps like Monzo’s online banking app have been built in Go since their inception, and now use it to host over 1,600 microservices. Monzo has been using Go solely since 2015, working with Kubernetes and highlighting that Go is “quite simple, it’s statically typed, and it makes it easy for us to get people on board.”
- Cryptography and cryptocurrency
Most notably, implementations of the Bitcoin Lightning Network are written in Go, as well as Geth, the main Ethereum implementation.
- Machine learning and data science
Both Go and Python has been considered some of the best programming languages for AI and machine learning, yet Go trails way behind R and Python as the most popular data science and machine learning languages.
Go can handle complex math problems much faster than Python, though Python has advantages with its versatility, readability, and multi-purpose use for data science. You can now run Tensorflow models in Go as opposed to just Python to take advantage of some of Go’s speed advantages.
We believe that Golang will become a much more adopted language in the future.
Pros and Cons of GoLang?
Pros
- Ease of use.
- A smart standard library.
- Strong security built-in.
- Google's prominence in the industry.
Cons
- Sometimes too simplistic.
- It's still a young language.
- Lack of a virtual machine.
- It hasn't quite found its niche.
Limitations of GoLang
- Go does not support generic functions.
- Go icode takes longer to write than Python.
- Not suitable for some types of applications.
Conclusion
In this article, you learned about the GoLang programming language and why it is a good one to know.
Go is a powerful programming language that is here to stay. It's clear from the 2020 StackOverflow Developer Survey that developers love Go, and its popularity is rising year by year.
Go is definitely worth your time.
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