Learning first Step on Go programming

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Reaching My 100th Blog Post — And Stepping Into the World of Development

I’ve officially published my 100th blog post, and it feels like a milestone worth celebrating. Until now, most of my writing has focused on testing, the challenges I faced, and the solutions I discovered along the way. But as my career grows, my learning journey is expanding too — and it’s time to bring development into the picture.

Why I’m Learning Python and Go

I’ve chosen Python as my primary programming language because of its strong presence in AI and automation. At the same time, my day‑to‑day work revolves heavily around API services, which naturally led me to explore Go (Golang) in parallel.

Here’s the simple difference between the two:

  • Python is an interpreted language — the code runs directly in a human‑readable format.

  • Go is a compiled language — the code is converted into machine‑readable form before execution.

From a beginner’s perspective, this means Go catches many errors during compilation, giving you cleaner, faster, and more predictable performance at runtime.

Go is widely used for:

  • API development

  • CLI tools

  • Microservices architecture

  • Backend server.

  • DEVOPS activity

So it fits perfectly with the kind of backend and service‑oriented work I’m doing.

Scripts in Perl, then bash, then python. In Python, distribution needs some work, to package all the dependencies. Go language gives a complete binary file. Builds all the code, packages all the dependencies and make as a single binary file.

awesome-go-cli , gotify.net – these sites give many command line tools. download for your OS, just execute that binary.

Starting With the Classic: “Hello, World!”

Like any programming journey, mine begins with the traditional Hello World program — this time in Go.

Before writing code, we need to install Go.

Installing Go

  • On Linux: download the Go binary package and extract it — the version gets installed automatically.

  • On Windows (my setup): download the .exe installer. It sets up Go and updates environment variables automatically.

Checking the Go Version

I first tried:

go --version

It didn’t work. But this one did:

go version

That confirmed my installation.

Setting Up the Editor

I’m using VS Code, since I’m already comfortable with it. Just create a folder, add a .go file, and you’re ready to write your first program.

Simple Go “Hello World” Program

hello.go
package main

import "fmt"

// fmt -> format package
// this file belongs to the main package

func main() {
    fmt.Println("Hello world\n")
    fmt.Print("JTest\n")

    name := "Jtest"
    age := 23
    fmt.Printf("name: %s, age: %d \n", name, age)

    // another way of declaring variables
    var name1 string = "test"
    var age1 int = 10
    fmt.Printf("name1: %s, age1: %d \n", name1, age1)
}

Key Basics You Should Know

  1. How to run a Go program


    go run hello.go

  2. How to build a Go program

    go build hello.go

    This generates an executable file (.exe on Windows).

  3. Print statements are case‑sensitive Print, Println, Printf — the P must be capital.

  4. Use double quotes Go does not accept single quotes for strings.

  5. Braces must be on the same line as the function name Moving { to the next line causes an error.

  6. Variables cannot be redeclared Declaring the same variable twice will throw an error.

After building, I tested the generated hello.exe by running it from the command prompt — and it worked perfectly.

Wrapping Up

That’s my first step into the Go programming world. It feels good to start something new, and I’m excited to continue exploring Go alongside Python.

A special thanks to Jafar for guiding us through the initial setup and concepts.

More development posts coming soon — this is just the beginning.


Note: Image downloaded from Google.

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