“At the time, no single team member knew to Go, but within a month, everyone was writing in Go and we were building out the endpoints. It was the flexibility, how easy it was to use, and the really cool concept behind Go (how Go handles native concurrency, garbage collection, and of course safety+speed.) that helped engage us during the build. Also, who can beat that cute mascot!” — Jaime Enrique Garcia Lopez, Senior Software Development Manager at Capital One
How Go Came into Existence
The Go programming language was borne because things were getting much more complex in the codebases within Google. It was designed by Robert Griesemer, Rob Pike, and Ken Thompson, who all reportedly have a shared dislike for C++. Go was announced to the public in 2009, and it was made open source in 2012 when its first version, 1.0, was released. Go quickly rose in popularity and became many developers' first choice due to its simplicity, readability, efficiency, and concurrent nature. Concurrent means that it can run multiple tasks at the same time. Go is used for server-side (backend) programming, game development, cloud-based programming, and even Data Science. It is also popular for making command-line tools. Today, many tech giants use Go like Google, Netflix, Twitch, Ethereum, Dropbox, Kubernetes, Docker, Heroku, and lots more. Unsurprisingly, Kubernetes, Docker, and Heroku are using Go because cloud-based programming is one of the main reasons why Go was designed.
Why you Should Learn Go
Go is one of the simplest programming languages out there. It is easy to pick up, especially if you already have knowledge of any other programming language. In my case, I learned the fundamentals of Go in one sitting.
Many developers who use Go and are confident in their teaching abilities say that they can get an absolute beginner to build an app with Go in just a few hours.
The simplicity of Go is one of the main reasons it jumped 5 places from the 10th to 5th most loved programming language according to the 2020 StackOverflow Developer Survey.
Active Community and Good Documentation: Go has solid and easy-to-read documentation. You can read the documentation on the official website. Apart from documentation, Go also has a supportive and active community behind it, so you can always get help when you are stuck. The hashtag #golang is commonly used on Twitter, so in case you get stuck, you can tweet your question and attach the hashtag to it.
You Can Get a lot Done with Go: Go is a multipurpose programming language, meaning you can use it for a number of things such as web development, data science, cloud computing, and more. If you want to have a career in cloud-based programming, you should consider learning to Go, because platforms such as Amazon Web Services, Kubernetes, and Google Cloud Platform (GCP) all support Go.
Attractive Wages: According to the 2020 StackOverflow Developer Survey, Go developers are the third-highest paid after Perl and Scala with a median salary of $74K. This figure will probably continue to climb, because Go continues to gain more popularity every year and it is in demand. So, to earn more money, you should consider learning Go.
Go has everything you liked about Java, then, some more:
- Way shorter startup times (beating even Quarks).
- Way smaller resources footprint.
- Blazing fast performance.
- Simple and easy-to-learn syntax.
- built with containerization and version control in mind.
- Excellent concurrency management.
- produces native executable, so no need for runtimes or libraries. All of that made Go appealing to C, C++, and Java Developers.
How to learn Go:
Go through this 7-hour lecture: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YS4e4q9oBaU&t=3173s
Once you will learn the fundamentals of Go then you can start building some projects: youtube.com/watch?v=ASBUp7stqjo&list=PL..
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. Now, go learn some Go.