Go (commonly referred to as GoLang because of its original domain name golang.org) is an open-source programming language created by Google. It is a general-purpose programming language used for web development and other applications.
The Go Language was created by Robert Griesemer, Rob Pike, and Ken Thompson in 2009. They wanted to solve the problem of multi-core processors’ inability to keep up with the demand for fast web applications. It is a statically typed, compiled, garbage-collected language with C-like syntax.
Many developers have also adopted it as the preferred language for backend web services, and it has enjoyed rising popularity. But does it deserve its reputation, or would you be better off with another language for your project?
The Pros of GoLang
While a 2009 release date doesn’t make GoLang young, it’s still a relative newcomer compared to HTML and JavaScript.
According to Stack Overflow’s survey of almost 50,000 developers, 9.4% of professional developers choose to work in Go, compared to JavaScript’s 69.7%.
So, why should you consider programming with Go if it’s less popular than other languages? Since Go was developed after some of the most popular languages, it could adopt the good and address the bad.
Speed
Go’s developers prioritized speed. It is statically typed and compiled, optimizing the code for hardware efficiency. This makes it significantly faster than JavaScript and other dynamic languages since these must be interpreted before they are executed.
Readability
Go has a few features that make it very readable:
- Its interactive shell makes it easy to experiment with the language without needing to write any code.
- It uses fewer symbols than other languages, which makes the code easier to read.
- It doesn’t have implicit type conversions, which means that there are fewer errors caused by confusing types.
- It has explicit pointers, which means that there are fewer errors caused by incorrect memory management.
Ease of use
GoLang’s ease of use is one of its primary advantages. Because of its easy-to-read and clean syntax, it’s easier for programmers to find errors in programs without wasting valuable time and resources hunting through byzantine code.
Since the creators prioritized simplicity when writing Go, the manual is a slim 50 pages instead of hundreds and hundreds, as is the standard. This makes consulting or researching specific things a breeze. It also makes becoming fluent in Go simpler than many other languages, especially if the developer already knows C.
Dynamic Content
Go is commonly used for websites and web applications because of its simplicity in producing dynamic content.
Golang compiles binaries that can be executed on any system or architecture. This means that no matter what the developer’s computer setup looks like, they can still execute the code from their local machine. This also means that there are no dependency issues when deploying the application.
Other pros
- It supports concurrency with goroutines, meaning multiple tasks can be executed simultaneously.
- Go is commonly used for websites and web applications because of its simplicity in producing dynamic content.
- Go has a robust collection of automation features.
- It has an excellent standard library with many valuable functions for parsing data and working with strings.
- It can generate packages for different platforms, including Windows, Mac OS X, and Linux.
- Since Google developed GoLang, there is a robust community and support surrounding it.
Cons of GoLang
GoLang is an excellent language for building web applications and microservices. But it has some cons, and some pros come with trade-offs that may make you think twice if they’re worth it.
Popularity
As mentioned earlier, GoLang is a younger language than some competitors. So while it’s swiftly growing in popularity, this has some negatives.
There are generally fewer resources available compared to more popular languages. In addition, it may be more difficult to find experienced developers.
And while GoLang has some standard libraries that are up to date and efficient, there are considerably fewer than older, more established languages. These older languages have many community-created libraries that can’t be built in a day.
Automation
GoLang offers automation that can eventually save you time and energy. However, it has an equal possibility of increasing your headache since the potential for error when using automation features in programming is extremely high. An error in one part of the automation can cause a cascade of further errors.
This can render these features a net zero since they can easily cause more chaos than save time.
No virtual machine
Not having a virtual machine has its pros: no problems with dependencies and faster debugging cycles. But it also means the standalone binaries are huge. This is because the code has to make up for the absence of a virtual machine.
The lack of a virtual machine significantly increases the RAM usage of even simple programs. While the RAM usage of a small program may not overload a system, it can prove a limiting factor if you’re trying to make something complex.
GUI
GoLang does not have any GUI library that can be used for developing user interfaces. The developers of Go are working on one called “gocui,” but it is still in the early stages of development and lacks many features available in other GUI libraries.
The lack of a GUI library in GoLang does not make it impossible to create GUIs. On the contrary, there are many different ways that developers can use to create GUIs. Still, they can be time-consuming and difficult, especially if the developer is new to the language.
GoLang Summarized
No language will ever be perfect for every use case, but Go excels at what it sets out to do. Its compactness and code efficiency, safety and speed of programs, ease of use, and readability make it an excellent choice for developers. However, it is harder to find developers proficient in Go. It lacks a virtual machine and has no native GUI library.
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