Book Image

Go Systems Programming

Book Image

Go Systems Programming

Overview of this book

Go is the new systems programming language for Linux and Unix systems. It is also the language in which some of the most prominent cloud-level systems have been written, such as Docker. Where C programmers used to rule, Go programmers are in demand to write highly optimized systems programming code. Created by some of the original designers of C and Unix, Go expands the systems programmers toolkit and adds a mature, clear programming language. Traditional system applications become easier to write since pointers are not relevant and garbage collection has taken away the most problematic area for low-level systems code: memory management. This book opens up the world of high-performance Unix system applications to the beginning Go programmer. It does not get stuck on single systems or even system types, but tries to expand the original teachings from Unix system level programming to all types of servers, the cloud, and the web.
Table of Contents (13 chapters)

Go functions

Functions are an important element of every programming language because they allow you to break big programs into smaller and more manageable parts, but they must be as independent of each other as possible and must do one job and only one job. So, if you find yourself writing functions that do multiple things, you may want to consider writing multiple functions instead. However, Go will not refuse to compile functions that are long, complicated, or do multiple things.

A safe indication that you need to create a new function is when you find yourself using the same Go code multiple times in your program. Similarly, a safe indication that you need to put some of your functions in a module is when you find yourself using the same functions all the time in most of your programs.

The single most popular Go function is main(), which can be found in every autonomous Go...