Update: Philipp Lenssen notes that someone has already developed a language called Go! (with an exclamation point). There is a book on it here. The author wants Google to change the name. This could get confusing for developers looking to use Go, although, it could also help sales of the Go! book. It wouldn’t make for very happy customers, however.
Original Article: Google has open sourced its own programming language, which it simply calls “Go.” The company still calls Go experimental. Google’s Go Team describes the language:
Go combines the development speed of working in a dynamic language like Python with the performance and safety of a compiled language like C or C++. Typical builds feel instantaneous; even large binaries compile in just a few seconds. And the compiled code runs close to the speed of C. Go lets you move fast.
Go is a great language for systems programming with support for multi-processing, a fresh and lightweight take on object-oriented design, plus some cool features like true closures and reflection.
Go comes with built-in support for concurrency, what Google calls a “novel” type system, and as mentioned above, it is apparently really fast. Google says most builds take well under a second.
The following clip provides some more info about the language:
The Go site offers a number of documents, such as a tutorial, a FAQ page, a tech talk, language specification, memory model, and more. There are how-tos for installing Go and contributing code. There is command documentation, package documentation, and source files. If you’re a developer itching to mess around with a new language, go dig in.
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