Pros and Cons of Go language
In this tutorial we will discuss about what are the pros and cons of Go language. Is GoLang worth it? What makes it more valuable? What is better than the stalwarts Java, Python, and C++? It’s not a good idea to choose it. Let’s get started. Find out what the pros and cons are.
Advantages of Go language
1. Simple syntax
Golang is syntactically similar to C and has a really simple syntax. It is easy to learn with little facets. It is not overwhelmed with features and thus it is easier to write readable and maintainable code in GO. Also, GO has very few keywords compared to other mainstream languages. The GO specification mentions 25 keywords.able.
2. Compiled language
Golang compiles into a native executable. Its compilation is speedy, and it is attributed due to a couple of reasons. When you build a GO program, the resulting binary is what it is. There are no other dependencies. You can port this binary to any platform which supports GO, and it can execute there. This is different when you compare it with other programming languages such as JAVA, Python, where to create a self-contained binary, many dependencies need to be taken care of and packed along.
There is no concept of Dynamic Link Library in GO. It supports static linking. GO is statically linked with all the libraries into a single standalone big fat binary.
3. Go compiler
In addition to its quickness as a compiled language, the Go compiler offers additional benefits like checking for errors, easier deployment, and the ability to optimize your code for efficiency.
4. Easy To Learn
Picking up Go is easy for software developers, particularly if they already have a solid foundation in C or Java.
While the keywords and syntax may slightly differ, Go has the same procedural approach that programmers would familiarize in no time.
5. Static Type language
Even though GO is a very neat syntax, It is a strong, static type language. It does not contain any implicit Conversion allowed in the language since it is the most used static type. During compile time, errors due to mismatched types are detected unlike languages like Python, Ruby. etc
6. Fast compilation
The Go compiler is pretty amazing, and it has been designed to be fast right from the beginning.
7. Garbage collection
Go is a garbage-collected language. That means you don’t have to worry about freeing up memory. So you don’t need to be concerned about malloc() or free() statements like in C, C++. This also helps to write concurrent programs easily.
8. Opensource
Last but not least, Go is an open-source project. You can participate and contribute to the Go project.
9. Scalability
Because Google built Go language, it was designed with scalability in mind. As applications grow, they need to handle many smaller sub-tasks simultaneously, like delivering HTML pages to individual web browsers.
Running simultaneous tasks within an application is called concurrency. Go has many built-in features designed to handle concurrency, most notably goroutines and channels.
Goroutines take up only 2 kB of memory, making it scalable when running multiple concurrent processes arise. Unlike Java threads, which are blocking by nature, Goroutines are non-blocking.
Golang’s Goroutines are the opposite of Java’s thread, where the latter is a heavyweight that gobbles up memory. Technically, you can run millions of GoRoutines without crashing the system.
10. Comes with built-in testing tool
Developers love that the language comes with a built-in testing tool and the fact that it has the simplest API. The efficacy of this tool makes it easy to test and profile executable codes. Advanced features like running tests in parallel, marking the tests and so on are also available.
Disadvantages of Go language
Despite the growing popularity of Go, it is not a perfect programming language. Well, no programming language is. Here are some cons that you’ll need to consider before adopting Go.
1. It’s A Young Language
Being a very young language, developers might find it challenging to make maximum use of the libraries. While in doubt, they might have to write the libraries themselves, and there aren’t many books or online courses to help.
2. No inheritance in GO
Go doesn’t have classes. It has structs. Even though the functionality of structs of pretty similar to classes but GO favors composition over inheritance. GO also doesn’t support type hierarchy.
Go doesn’t have keywords such as extends or implements as in JAVA. So in that terms GO is not a pure OOP language. The missing of such features might seem odd to coders who all well versed in coding in an OOP manner.
2. Runtime safety is not that good
Go is safe, but it doesn’t deliver the level of safety that Rust provides. The safety level is compile-time only and, to a certain extent, runtime. Go language focuses on the speed of production, and Rust concentrates on the safety aspect.
3. Golang Doesn’t Support Generics
A function is a block of code that takes an input, processes it, and returns an output. Generic functions are a collection of different functions with the same name, but with undefined types of inputs during compile time.
Without support for generic functions, programmers will need to create multiple footprints of functions to deal with different types of parameters.
Like the C language, Golang is based on, the lack of support for generic functions can severely limit code reusability and decrease efficiency during development.
Other disadvantages include operator overloading and problems in code duplication and meta-programming because those cannot be statically checked.
That’s all about the Pros and Cons of Go language. If you have any queries or feedback, please write us email at contact@waytoeasylearn.com. Enjoy learning, Enjoy Golang.!!