ch01-getting-started.md

Getting started with Go - a fast track overview.

Installing Go

Visit Go's official installation instructions at here

Hello World!

package main // Everything in Go revolves around packages
import (
    "fmt"
 ) // Import the fmt or formatting package

func main() { //Define main function "func" is the keyword to notice here.
    fmt.Printf("Hello, World!") // The letters aren't bytes or chars, in fact in Go these are called "runes". This adds unicode support, enabling the language to interpret and work in any printable character.
    // Also, we can use "Println" instead of "Printf" to print with a newline at end of string. Just as in Java.
}

Notice the 'P' in Printf. To export any function outside of a package or to be able to use any function from a package the first letter of the function needs to be a capital letter. Same goes with other things such as variables.

Go directory structure:

The Go compiler is built to operate on a particular directory structure. Therefore having the structure correct is very important for working with Go. The typical suggested directory structure should be like:

$GOPATH
      |__src
            |_<your project name>
                                |_*.go

If you use the defined dir structure, you can use the go install function which will store your compiled binary in a folder called bin like shown below.

$GOPATH
      |__src
      |     |_<your project name>
      |                         |_*.go
      |_bin/<your project name executable>

Go style:

go fmt is an inbuilt function that enforces the Go formatting in the source code. Go is very particular about the code formatting and things like braces after function declaration can't be overwritten.

Getting help in Go

The best place to get all the documentation is golang.org. But we can also have a local help program, sort of Go's own man pages. That program is called godoc. It allows you to have information about any package, including the one you have written.

e.g:

godoc fmt Printf