It’s no secret that Java is the undisputed king of enterprise-grade software development! But, there has been a new wave of talk going around of a new competitor entering the arena of corporate IT. The Golang programming language, Google’s own brainchild, was developed to aid Google’s internal development. But ever since Golang web programming went mainstream, it has only risen in popularity. But, the question of whether Golang will be another cameo or a mainstream enterprise language hangs in the balance, and will be our main focus through this blog.
What is Golang programming language?
Go, also known as Golang, was initially developed by Google in 2007, but it was later released as an open-source programming language. Go is a concurrent procedural language that is statically typed, paired with a garbage collector. The main goal of its creation was to design a language that is easy to learn and great at developing scalable applications. Google’s ability to release internal developments as open-source community projects for the public is truly inspirational!
Why use Go programming language?
Go’s adoption rate is higher than ever, beating the likes of Java and Python by miles when it comes to enterprise-level backend development. It’s true that TypeScript and JavaScript have more users and trending releases than Go, but a large number of this user base is tied to amateur developers and hobby programmers. On the other hand, Go is almost always exclusively used to develop or support large software development projects.
Large-scale projects
Large-scale projects come with a unique set of challenges and often demonstrate complications previously unheard of. Google’s goal in creating Go was to create a language that answered its own prayers as it faced various pitfalls during the development of its services. Golang’s inherent design has a knack for minimizing both compilation times and dependency on external libraries. Go also has a well-maintained documentation, which is crucial when you are debugging thousands of lines of code.
Key Takeaways:
The fast compilation times do wonders in eliminating friction within CI/CD pipelines.
Go’s minimalist syntax is great at promoting uniformity within different development teams
The built-in concurrency primitives eliminate the need for complex frameworks when writing multi-threaded code.
Ease of Maintenance
When it comes to Golang web programming, there is only one idiomatic way to get things done! While this can inhibit developer freedom, it does drastically reduce decision fatigue and divergence. All the features being implemented are orthogonal and work cohesively. Even though Go is considered to be a boring language, a quick Go programming course would teach you that Golang’s official toolchain enforces a standard development workflow. Go fmt, Go vet, and Golint are all a part of its developer experience, ensuring that projects are consistent.
Key Takeaways:
Native static analysis tools can aid in catching bugs before deployment.
Reduction of unnecessary frameworks and abstractions.
Golang’s focus remains on code and architecture without debating on development styles.
High performance and fast deployments
Golang’s performance can be compared with the likes of C thanks to its fast execution times and minimized startup delay. Go programming language compiles to native machine code, which is responsible for its blazingly fast speed whilst maintaining developer productivity. Traditional thread-based systems can’t come even close to Go’s concurrency model that uses Goroutines and channels.
Golang web deployment enables continuous delivery at scale as it generates both compact and self-contained binaries. When we compare Go with Java, Go apps start up in mere milliseconds, which gives a massive boost to development teams looking to improve on rollout times and uptime in containerized environments.
Key Takeaways:
Golang is perfect for time-critical use cases such as API development, event-driven architectures, and stream processing systems.
Smaller image sizes can boost startup times and lower cloud costs and egress.
Cross-platform, stability, and compatibility
A massive flaw in languages like JavaScript is its lack of compatibility when going forward. A program written today is not guaranteed to compile a few years later because of the changes coming through. This is a major problem when it comes to enterprise software design, as these programs are developed to last. Golang programming is made to be backwards compatible, which means that if it compiles in this version, it will compile in the next as well.
Imagine Java’s “develop once, run anywhere” concept on steroids! Go programming can produce binaries from a single codebase for all major operating systems and architectures. This flexibility makes it a top contender for everything from CI/CD pipelines, IOT programming, to hybrid infrastructure.
Key Takeaways:
Future-proof programming where compatibility is guaranteed.
Cross-platform compatibility where binaries can be produced from a single codebase using just one line.
Long-term returns on code with few breaking changes reported and a predictable upgrade path.
Golang is the future.
Switching over to Go programming is not just a switch from one language to another, but an entire shift in paradigms. Whether it’s for API development, large-scale engineering, or data pipelines, Go’s unique blend of simplicity, maintainability, and performance makes it a hot contender for all purposes. It’s no wonder that Western Europe’s Go use is booming at a healthy 15%, even creating the need for Golang 2.0.
Enterprises demand faster, scalable, reliable software, and Go is the answer to all those requirements. With cloud engineering and cloud native development becoming mainstream, the appeal for Go programming is at an all-time high.
Sure, it’ll take some time for JavaScript and its many variants to fizzle out of the picture, but data and results don’t lie. It’s just a matter of time before Golang becomes the de facto language of the future.