Why Developers Are Learning Golang En Masse
Golang – or Go – was created by Robert Griesemer, Rob Pike and Ken Thompson in 2007. Backed by Google, the language was first open-sourced in 2009 and then given a stable release in 2011.
While it was built by Google, any developer can contribute to it by creating new proposals, fixing bugs and improving its speed. This functionality has created a comradery in the community and made Golang the fastest-growing language on GitHub.
Since its conception, there has been an incremental adoption of the language. Although predominantly used by independent programmers and developers initially, it now has an array of high-profile users that include the BBC, Uber and SoundCloud to name a few.
With this scale of investment and increase in user base, we wanted to discuss the migration taking place in the tech world from the classic languages such as Python and Java to Golang.
Future-proof technology
The fact that Google created Go implies a level of longevity for the language. It is cross-platform, which means that users can target their chosen operating system when compiling code.
Wider support will inevitably result in wider usage, but what really secures the future of Golang is cloud development. Go is being rapidly adopted as the go-to cloud native language. As more Software as a Service (SaaS) companies crop up, more businesses will come to rely on cloud operations for their processes. It is incredibly beneficial for Go to position itself as the number one choice for cloud development.
Unlike most mainstream programming languages, Go offers a native concurrency model. Its functionality relies on a model called communicating sequential processes (CSP). Instead of locking variables to share memory, Golang allows you to communicate with the value stored in your variable from one thread to another. Concurrency is about doing multiple things at once – through Go’s native environment, this whole process is much more convenient and desirable.
Over-complicated competitors
Golang’s founders created it in answer to the difficulties they facedwith faster languages like C, which they deemed unsafe. The interpreted language, Ruby, is safer but much slower to use as it has many dependencies – one of which is the interpreter itself. With Java, a virtual machine is needed to run the code. Finally, in the case of Python, it has been argued in online discussions that its dynamic compilation can result in undetected errors that exist in code, also making it unsafe.
When designed, simplicity was at Go’s core. The software has intentionally left out many of the features that are notorious in modern coding languages. Specifically, there are no classes – instead, Go uses structs. It doesn’t support inheritance either, so that it is easier to modify and clearer to the developer. Additionally, there are no constructors, annotations or generics. All is removed in an effort to completely redefine the responsibilities of the programmer.
Corporate buy-in
The results of Go’s 2017 user survey proved great reading. Not only because of a clear increase in users, but more specifically because it was the first time that a number of respondents replied saying that they used Go inwork rather than outside of it.
And, as mentioned above, the likes of BBC, Uber and SoundCloud are all now using Golang to some capacity. But this figure represents something much bigger: that developers are being encouraged to learn Golang for their careers, and that it is a necessary skill in the current climate.
If you’re a business looking to transform your processes with a developer versed in Golang, please get in touch! Our team have access to a network of specialists and we’re committed to finding the expert that best suits you.