Is Golang the right choice for 2024?

June 1, 2024 Roberto Magalhães

Golang was created in 2009 and has slowly but steadily grown as a fantastic alternative to C++ and other compiled languages. Why is it consistently gaining popularity?

Golang, also known as Go, is an open-source programming language created by Google in 2009. It is a statically typed and compiled language designed to be simple, efficient, and reliable. It is mainly used to build web applications, cloud services, and distributed systems.

Go was designed to be a modern language with the ability to easily handle large-scale projects. It is easy to learn and understand, and its syntax is designed to be intuitive and straightforward. Go has many features that stand out from other programming languages, such as built-in garbage collection, concurrency primitives, and fast compilation times.

It also has a powerful standard library that provides a wide range of functionality for building robust applications. Furthermore, Go is highly scalable and can be used for small and large projects. Overall, Go is a great option for building web applications, cloud services, and distributed systems. It's fast, reliable, and easy to learn and use. It also has a wide range of features that set it apart from other programming languages.

Today we're going to delve a little deeper into Golang, talk in depth about its characteristics and try to predict where the language will be in the coming years.

A Brief History of Golang

Golang, or Go, is a programming language created by Google in 2009. It was designed to be an easy language to learn and use, while also being powerful enough to handle large and complex projects. Go was initially developed by Robert Griesemer, Rob Pike and Ken Thompson, who had previously worked on the Unix operating system.

They sought to create a language that combined the power of C and C++ with the ease of use of a scripting language like Python. Go was first released to the public in November 2009 and has since become one of the most popular programming languages in the world. Many companies use it, including Google, Dropbox, Uber, and more.

Go has been updated over the years, adding numerous improvements such as module support, improved error messages, and more. Go has also seen the development of many frameworks and libraries, such as the popular Revel web framework, the Beego web application framework, and the Gin web server framework.

In addition to its popularity among developers, Go has also been used in several open source projects, such as the popular distributed version control system Git, the popular image manipulation library ImageMagick, and the popular text editor Vim. Go has become a popular language for creating microservices due to its scalability and performance. It is also used to create distributed systems, such as the popular etcd distributed key-value store.

Go is a popular programming language used by approximately 1.1 million professional developers as a primary language and approximately 2.7 million as a secondary language. It is most popular in China, Russia and the United States and is among the top 10 languages of professional developers. with a share of 7% .

Go is becoming the language of choice for many companies and is often used for backend and microservices development. The Go community is enthusiastic, fun, and welcoming, which makes it a great language to learn and use.

Golang Tools

The Go compiler is one of the most important tools in the Golang ecosystem. The compiler takes your code and turns it into an executable program that can run on any computer. The compiler also includes a variety of tools such as linting, debugging, and code optimization. The Go compiler is open source and can be downloaded for free from the official website.

Golang also comes with an integrated development environment (IDE) called GoLand . GoLand is a great tool for writing, running and debugging your code quickly. It also has a built-in debugger, code refactoring, and other useful features. GoLand is available for Windows and Mac OS X.

Golang also comes with an official package manager called “ go get it .” Go get makes it easy to install packages from the official repository or third-party sources. You can use go get to install libraries, frameworks, and other dependencies required for your project.

The official Golang website also offers a great resource for learning the language called “ A Tour of Go .” This interactive tutorial teaches you the basics of the language and provides the tools you need to get started. The tour includes exercises that help you practice your coding skills.

Golang also has several popular frameworks available. The most popular include Eco, Revel and Gin . These frameworks provide the tools you need to quickly create web applications. They also have great documentation that makes it easy to get started.

Golang has a vibrant community of developers who are always willing to help newbies. You can find many useful resources on the official Golang website and on sites like Stack Overflow and Reddit. There are also numerous online communities dedicated to helping Golang developers, such as Golang Slack and Squirrels on Slack.

Finally, Golang has a great set of tools for testing your code. The official Golang testing framework is called “Go test” and provides the tools you need to quickly write tests for your code. There are also third-party testing tools like Ginkgo and Gomega that make it easy to write comprehensive tests.

Golang Structures

Gin

Gin is a web framework written in Go that is fast, lightweight and powerful. It is designed to be simple and easy to use, making it ideal for developers who want to create web applications quickly. It also provides features such as routing, middleware support, templates, and an integrated testing environment.

Beego

Beego is another web framework written in Go designed to be fast, flexible, and easy to use. It provides features such as routing, templates, session management, and an integrated testing environment. Beego provides support for web services such as JSON-RPC, XML-RPC and RESTful APIs.

Buffalo

Buffalo is a web framework written in Go that focuses on rapid development and productivity. It provides features such as routing, templates, asset packaging, session management, and an integrated testing environment. Buffalo also provides support for the same web services.

Echo

Echo is a high-performance web framework written in Go that focuses on speed and productivity. It provides features such as routing, middleware support, templates, session management, and an integrated testing environment. Echo also provides support for web services such as JSON-RPC, XML-RPC, and RESTful APIs.

Party

Revel is a full-stack web framework written in Go that focuses on speed and productivity. It provides features such as routing, templates, asset packaging, session management, and an integrated testing environment. Revel also provides support for the web services mentioned above.

Why Golang has become a benchmark for microservices

Golang has become increasingly popular as the language of choice for microservices . Its use in the development of distributed systems has made it an attractive option for companies looking to create applications and services quickly and efficiently.

First, Golang is a statically typed compiled language that is simple to learn and use. This makes it an ideal language for building microservices because it is easy to understand and maintain.

Furthermore, Golang has a robust set of features that make it suitable for building microservices. These features include support for concurrency, a lightweight runtime, and a built-in garbage collector. Secondly, Golang is a cross-platform language that can be used on different operating systems and architectures.

This makes it ideal for creating distributed systems that need to be accessible from multiple platforms. Golang's cross-platform support allows developers to quickly port their code to different platforms, making it easier to deploy microservices across multiple environments.

Third, Golang is fast. The language was designed to be fast and efficient, allowing developers to create high-performance applications. Additionally, the static typing of the language ensures that code is more likely to execute quickly and efficiently. This makes Golang an ideal choice for building microservices that need to handle large volumes of requests with minimal latency .

Finally, Golang is highly scalable. The language is designed to support horizontal scaling, which allows developers to easily add new nodes to their distributed system without needing to rewrite code. This makes it easier to expand microservices as demand increases, ensuring applications remain responsive even under heavy load.

In summary, Golang is an ideal choice for building microservices due to its simple syntax , robust feature set, cross-platform support, speed, and scalability. Its use in distributed systems has made it a popular choice among developers looking to create applications and services quickly and efficiently. For these reasons, Golang is the ideal language for microservices.

Comparing Golang with other languages

Golang vs. Rust

Golang

Static typing, garbage collection, concurrency support, pointer safety, reflection, function overloading, type inference, operator overloading
Easy to learn and use with simple syntax and excellent documentation
Good performance due to the use of static typing and garbage collection
Clean, readable code with a well-defined style guide
Large and active community with many libraries and frameworks available
Extensive set of tools for development, debugging, profiling, and deployment

Rust

Static typing, ownership and borrowing model, no garbage collection, concurrency support, pointer safety, pattern matching, algebraic data types, generics
Can be difficult to learn due to its complexity and lack of good documentation
Excellent performance due to its ownership and loan model and lack of garbage collection.
High-quality code due to its type system and strict compiler checks
Growing and active community with an increasing number of libraries and frameworks available
Toolset development for development, debugging, profiling, and deployment

Golang versus C++

Golang

Golang is a statically typed language with a syntax similar to C, but it also has some modern features such as garbage collection and concurrency support.
Golang is easy to learn, especially for developers familiar with C-style languages. It also has excellent documentation and a large package library.
Golang is very fast and known for its performance. It has a very efficient memory management system and its code can be compiled quickly.
Golang has excellent code quality as it encourages developers to write clean, well-structured code that is easy to read and maintain.
Golang has an active community with many developers and companies contributing to the language. There are also many forums and resources available for developers to get help.
Golang has excellent tools, including an integrated development environment (IDE) and a rich ecosystem of third-party tools.

C++

C++ is a statically typed language with a powerful feature set and a C-like syntax.
C++ can be difficult to learn for developers new to the language, but there are many resources available for learning the language.
C++ is very fast and has excellent performance as it can take advantage of low-level optimizations.
C++ has good code quality, as long as developers are careful to write clean, well-structured code.
C++ has a large and active community, with many developers contributing to the language.
C++ has excellent tools, including an integrated development environment (IDE) and a rich ecosystem of third-party tools.

Golang x C#

Golang

Golang is a statistically typed language with a syntax similar to C, but with additional features such as garbage collection, type safety, and built-in concurrency primitives.
Golang is a cross-platform language compatible with Windows, Mac OS X and Linux.
Golang compiles directly to machine code, eliminating the need for an intermediate language like Java bytecode or .NET Intermediate Language.
Golang has a robust standard library that includes data structures, networking, web programming, concurrency, and other features.
Golang has excellent performance due to its fast compilation times and low memory overhead.
Golang is relatively easy to learn due to its simple syntax and clear documentation.

W#

C# is an object-oriented, statically typed language with a syntax similar to C++, but with additional features such as garbage collection, type safety, and built-in language constructs for object-oriented programming.
C# is a Windows-only language, although Mono is an open-source implementation of the .NET framework that can be used to develop cross-platform applications.
C# is compiled into Microsoft Intermediate Language (MSIL), which is then compiled into native machine code at run time.
C# has a large standard library that includes data structures, networks, web programming, database access, and other features.
C# performs well due to Just-In-Time compilation and garbage collection.
C# is relatively easy to learn due to its object-oriented nature and clear documentation.

Golang vs Java

Golang:

It uses static typing, fast compilation times, no need for virtual machines or interpreters, type inference, clean syntax, supports concurrency, and allows simple but powerful error handling.
It uses just-in-time compilation, has native support for many different operating systems, is lighter and more efficient than Java, and has faster compilation times.
It has an extensive library of standard packages for common tasks and a growing list of third-party packages for more specialized tasks. It also has several popular web frameworks such as Gin and Echo.
It has built-in security features such as memory safety, strict type checking, and safe code compilation.
Supports compiled and interpreted deployment options, allowing for easy deployment across multiple platforms.
It offers a simple and intuitive syntax that makes coding easier and faster for developers, as well as extensive documentation and a helpful community.
It has an active and growing ecosystem with several tools and libraries available for use.
It has built-in garbage collection and memory management, making maintenance easier for developers.

Java:

It uses static typing, requires a virtual machine or interpreter to run, requires verbose syntax, requires manual memory management, supports concurrency, and allows complex error handling.
It uses bytecode compilation, requires a virtual machine or interpreter to run, takes up more memory than Golang, and can be slower to compile than Golang.
It has an extensive library of standard packages for common tasks and a wide range of third-party libraries and frameworks for more specialized tasks. Popular web frameworks include Spring, Struts, and Hibernate.
It has built-in security features such as bytecode checking, sandboxing, and automatic memory management.
Requires compilation to a platform-specific bytecode format before deployment, which can be a time-consuming process.
It offers detailed syntax that can be difficult to read and understand for new developers, as well as limited documentation and a sometimes unhelpful community.
It has a mature and established ecosystem with an extensive library of tools and libraries available.
It requires manual memory management and garbage collection that can be time-consuming for developers to maintain.

Golang in the future

Golang is used for a variety of applications such as distributed network services, network programming, cloud native development, existing infrastructure replacements, standalone utilities and tools, web development, database development, systems programming, and DevOps.

Due to its growing popularity and lack of available developers, Golang developers tend to receive a higher salary compared to other programmers. According to Caissa Recruitment, the average salary of a Golang developer in Berlin, Germany in 2021 is €72,000. The hourly rate is also higher than other programming languages such as Symfony, Zend, Laravel, PHP, and Java.

The demand for Golang Services is only increasing and companies are increasingly looking for freelancers who have the skills to work with them, which in turn will stimulate the market and bring more programmers into the fold. If you are interested in working with GoLang, it is worth the effort, as it is here to stay for many years.