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GoLang

Go, also called Golang or Go language, is an open-source programming language that Google developed. To develop web applications, cloud, and networking services, software developers use Go in an array of operating systems and frameworks. Because of the Go language's fast startup time, low runtime overhead, and ability to run without a virtual machine (VM), it has become a very popular language for writing microservices and other uses. In addition, Go is used for concurrent programming -- a strategy to execute multiple tasks at one time, out of order or in partial order.

This language was influenced by the productivity and relative uniformity of Python. It uses goroutines, or lightweight processes, and a collection of packages for efficient dependency management. To solve multiple problems, effort in duplication, uncontrolled dependencies, difficulty in writing automatic tools, and cross language development, Go was designed.

History

For providing an alternative to C++, Google created Go. It is used to solve its own software engineering issues. Google began designing Go in 2007 and announced it in 2009 as an open-source project where the community members could collaborate on ideas and code. 

As generics in 2022, there were new updates and features added. It is thus used by high-profile companies, such as Google, Cloudflare, Dropbox, MongoDB, Netflix, SoundCloud, Twitch, and Uber.

Go is used to design simple and is also ideal for building complex programming systems. This helped the large software development teams to collaborate and troubleshoot complex projects effectively.

Benefits

Some of the benefits of using Go include the following:

  • quick compilation and execution speed;

  • doesn't need a VM;

  • portability;

  • concurrency;

  • interfaces enable loosely coupled systems;

  • automatic garbage collection;

  • memory safety;

  • independent error handling; and

  • extensive built-in libraries.

Limitations

Go does have some obstacles, such as the following:

  • Go still specializes in simple, readable code over abstract, implicit code despite the addition of generics;

  • lacks runtime safety;

  • enforces strict rules;

  • is incompatible with function overloading; and

  • isn't conventionally object-oriented.

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