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Go, or Golang is an open-source programming language designed by three Google engineers in 2007 and officially released two years later in 2009.

The Go programming language has been growing rapidly, and its number of fans is increasing every day. In this article, we want to introduce you to this programming language and discuss its advantages and disadvantages for projects.

Introduction to Go programming language

The GO programming language looks exactly like the C language and is just as suitable for highly professional programmers. This language provides you with maximum performance with minimal tools. But it must be said that this language is much more than an updated version of C!

This language has new and efficient features and is fully capable of data abstraction (Data Abstraction) and object-oriented (Object-oriented) programming. It is also equipped with an automatic memory management system or Garbage Collection. As you know, manual memory management takes a lot of time and energy from programmers, but with this wonderful system, you can save time and money. In addition to this feature, this language has no concepts such as constructors, generic lists, and exceptions.

XYZ

Go does not support inheritance, and this feature makes it easier to edit code. For example, in other languages, such as Java or Python, if a class named ABC inherits from another class called XYZ and you are going to make a change in the XYZ class, these changes must be in the classes inherited from this class. Apply. Therefore, it can be said that removing the inheritance feature has made the Go language better understood.

Given these features, the GO language is suitable for infrastructure development, such as network server programming, and also provides the tools and systems programmers need. It is also known as a versatile language for use in graphics, mobile applications, and even artificial intelligence.

The popularity of this language began when it was considered an alternative to unconventional scripting languages because it had more security, higher speed, and fewer bugs and errors. As we said, GO is an open-source language, so reference codes are available to developers for free. In addition, if a program is written in the environment of a Golang-supported operating system, it can be easily run on other supported operating systems without any modifications.

History of the origin of the GO programming language

It is interesting to note that some people refer to the Go language as the “21st century C language” because the GO language inherited its structure, data type, valuation parameters, and even markers from the C language. The image below will fully understand the evolution of the GO programming language.

Advantages and disadvantages of GO programming language

Advantages :

• It is accurate, flexible, simple, and easy to read and understand.
• Very good synchronization and the ability to run multiple tasks simultaneously.
• Development and compilation are very fast.
• Its coding is simply Ruby and Python.
• It has very useful and rich libraries.
• Go has simple range rules.
• The number of keywords in this language is about 25 words, which is much less than in languages ​​such as Java and C #.
• With the help of Garbage Collector, it manages memory in an amazing way and prevents execution delays.
• No object-oriented features of other languages. There is no need to class and change the inheritance of codes.
• Google as a designer supports it.
• It has a synchronization function (Goroutine) to create a string (Multiplex) in the operating system.

Disadvantages:

• Does not support Generic programming.
• Although this project’s packages are very comprehensive and practical, they cannot be used as an object-oriented language.
• It lacks the professional user interface tools in the library.
• Use structures instead of interfaces, which can be a hassle in a large application.
• Like similar programming languages, it does not respond to problems created by users.
• Sometimes, there is a need for manual memory management.
• It does not work well to fix errors.
• Despite the high coding speed, the security issue has not been considered.
• No virtual machine

Projects done with Golang

Since the GO language has been made available to the public as an open source, many applications have been written and designed based on it, some of which we will introduce in the following:

• Caddy is an open-source HTTP / 2 web server with automatic HTTPS capability.
• Docker is a set of tools for extending Linux holders.
• InfluxDB is a very popular database for managing and storing time data.
• NATS messaging is a very fast messenger with excellent performance.

Although the above are developed entirely based on the GO programming language, some sites and applications are also being developed with a range of languages, of which GO is one:

• Dropbox, which, in many cases, has replaced the GO language with Python.
• In most of its projects, Google has used this language, such as download servers.
• Netflix uses GoLang for two parts of its site architecture.
• Uber relies on this language to manage the geographic data section of its site.

As well as some other large companies in the world, such as:

• YouTube
• BBC
• Canonical
• Nokia Siemens
• Bitly
• Heroku
• Cloudflare
• SmugMug
• Feedbooks
• Iron.io
• Moovweb
• AirBrake
• Swirl.us
• SoundCloud

Conclusion

Although Go differs from other programming languages, it has concepts common to languages like C or C++. The market for programming languages ​​is becoming more advanced and wider. Although most programmers are reluctant to learn new and young languages, most business owners are interested in developing and producing programs based on new languages ​​such as GO.

So keep in mind that learning the new generation of programming languages ​​in the future will further improve and secure your job. However, be sure to note that no programming language is an absolute and perfect world in itself; each has special efficiency in the right place.