Programming: Google programming language is now real! Go GO Google!

Posted on 12. Nov, 2009 by Dragos in Coding

GOlang Google programming language

First the Google Browser (Chrome), then the Google mobile operating system (Android), Google is getting really close to launching its own (and hopefully open source) operating system for computers. But before that, we needed to expect a “default” programming language from the Goliath of all technological times. And it’s here! GO is the name of Google’s programming language, which from the words of the inventors it is a programming language that is:

simple
fast
safe
concurrent
fun
and of course.. open-source

Though the language looks very similar to C and C++, the developers say that the GO language has many improvements that put this novelty in the same row with languages such as C, C++, Java or Python.

Here are some points, which are the main features of GO:

Go compilers produce fast code fast. Typical builds take a fraction of a second yet the resulting programs run nearly as quickly as comparable C or C++ code.

Go is type safe and memory safe. Go has pointers but no pointer arithmetic. For random access, use slices, which know their limits.

Go promotes writing systems and servers as sets of lightweight communicating processes, called goroutines, with strong support from the language. Run thousands of goroutines if you want—and say good-bye to stack overflows.

Go has fast builds, clean syntax, garbage collection, methods for any type, and run-time reflection. It feels like a dynamic language but has the speed and safety of a static language. It’s a joy to use.

Yet not convinced about the power of GO? Russ Cox from Google, explains the fast compiles of big programs with GO:

Convinced now? Then GO for it!

Note from Google: The Go project was conceived to make it easier to write the kind of servers and other software Google uses internally, but the implementation isn’t quite mature enough yet for large-scale production use.