Relearning Go

This article was originally published on bmf-tech.com.

Overview

I have been working with Go for several years both professionally and personally, and I thought it would be effective to relearn it at this time, so I revisited various topics. Here’s a list of articles I read during this process.

Motivation

I want to strengthen my coding skills in Go by reviewing the basics, catching up on parts I missed in the specifications, new features, and tips.

Understanding Specifications

I read various articles related to understanding specifications, mainly from go.dev.

• go.dev - The Go Programming Language Specification
• go.dev - The Go Memory Model
• go.dev - Effective Go
• go.dev - How to Write Go Code
• go.dev - Writing Web Applications
• go.dev - Defer, Panic, and Recover
• go.dev - Case Studies
• go.dev - Use Cases
• go.dev - Policy
• go-tour-jp.appspot.com - Welcome to a tour of Go
• google.github.io - Go style
• github.com - CodeReviewComments

Generics

I caught up on the specifications of Generics added in Go 1.18.

• go.dev - Tutorial: Getting started with generics
• go.dev - When To Use Generics

Pros and Cons of Go

I read articles to organize my thoughts on the strengths and weaknesses of Go. Seeing various opinions is beneficial as perspectives can change based on different backgrounds.

I haven’t been exposed to many languages, so I can’t provide deep insights into the design philosophy of languages, but I particularly appreciate Go's philosophy of maintaining simplicity (it may be more accurate to say it appears simple). When using highly functional languages that allow various styles, I sometimes struggle with how to write, but with Go, I feel I can write straightforwardly, and I find it enjoyable to code in.

• zenn.dev - Revisiting the Features of Go
• zenn.dev - Reasons for Go Language's Success
• www.mobulous.com - GoLang: A Complete Details of All The Pros and Cons in Programming
• www.scalefocus.com - Why You Should Go with Go for Your Next Software Project
• www.uptech.team - Best Practices: Why Use Golang For Your Project
• https://medium.com - Why Go: The benefits of Golang
• www.infoworld.com - What’s the Go programming language really good for?
• builtin.com - Why Go? 8 Engineers Discuss Golang’s Advantages and How They Use It.
• madappgang.com - When and Why Use Go in Software Development

Books

I picked up and read about three books. There are other books I considered reading, but I selected those that seemed most aligned with my current goals. (I feel I need to focus on concurrency, but I decided to tackle that on another occasion...)

• Practical Go
• Distributed Services with Go
• Go Language 100 Tips: Solutions to Common Developer Mistakes (Impress Top Gear)

All are good books, but I particularly recommend Practical Go. I think it’s a great book for someone like me who has some experience with Go but wants to organize their knowledge.

cf. https://bmf-tech.com/posts/%e5%ae%9f%e7%94%a8Go%e8%a8%80%e8%aa%9e%e3%82%92%e8%aa%ad%e3%82%93%e3%81%a0

Thoughts

I’ve stored various things in my memory, so it should be useful when I need to retrieve them at some point. There are still many things I don’t fully understand, so I plan to relearn them at another milestone.