Go is a statically typed, compiled high-level programming language.
Go is often called Golang due to its original domain name, golang.org, but its proper name is Go. The official Go website now is go.dev.
Go was created by Robert Griesemer, Rob Pike, and Ken Thompson at Google in 2007 to address the challenges of handling large codebases and concurrency in existing languages such as C++ and Java.
Go focuses on simplicity, speed, and developer productivity.
Go language features
The following are the main features of the Go programming language.
Statically typed language
Go requires variables to have particular types determined at compile-time. This helps catch errors early and improve performance.
Compiled language
Go code can be compiled directly to native machine code, which can run directly on the operating system without using a virtual machine.
This means that Go programs can execute faster with lower resource usage than other languages that rely on a virtual machine like Java or C#.
Additionally, Go code can be compiled quickly even with a large codebase. This allows for rapid development and quick iteration cycles.
Cross-platform
A single Go codebase can be compiled for multiple platforms including Windows, Linux, and macOS. This reduces the efforts of developing cross-platform applications.
Garbage collection
Unlike unsafe languages such as C/C++, Go automatically manages memory so you don’t have to manage it manually. This reduces the risk of memory leaks and errors related to manual memory management.
Built-in concurrency
Go supports concurrency out of the box with goroutines and channels, allowing functions to run concurrently.
Simplicity
Go language has a simple and clean syntax, making learning easy.
What is Go used for
Go is widely used for the following:
- Cloud and server-side applications
- Command-line interfaces
- Web applications
