The Way to Go: A Thorough Introduction to the Go Programming Language

by Ivo Balbaert

This book provides the reader with a comprehensive overview of the new open source programming language Go (in its first stable and maintained release Go 1) from Google.

The language is devised with Java / C#-like syntax so as to feel familiar to the bulk of programmers today, but Go code is much cleaner and simpler to read, thus increasing the productivity of developers.

You will see how Go: simplifies programming with slices, maps, structs and interfaces
incorporates functional programming
makes error-handling easy and secure
simplifies concurrent and parallel programming with goroutines and channels

And you will learn how to: make use of Go's excellent standard library
program Go the idiomatic way using patterns and best practices in over 225 working examples and 135 exercises

This book focuses on the aspects that the reader needs to take part in the coming software revolution using Go. "

Genres: Programming, Technology, Computers, Go

631 pages, Kindle Edition

First published March 9, 2012

Reviews

[Maciej Bliziński · Rating 2 out of 5]

Informative, but boring. The best programming language book I read, was about Perl. Funny, no? The Way to Go allowed me to bootstrap programming in Go, but in the mid section of the book I needed to grit my teeth while reading enumerations. I guess it would be comparable to reading the language spec (which I'm reading now). The last section of the book on the other hand contains a number of useful tips, e.g. about error handling.

[Ben Crowl · Rating 4 out of 5]

Sloppily written but informative nonetheless.

[Michael (Max) Maximilien · Rating 2 out of 5]

Good intro but lacks details on why Golang's popularity is soaring and why for instance it's my goto language for anything cloud-related or more generally distributed systems.

[Andrew Matthews · Rating 2 out of 5]

I was reading the kindle book version from Amazon. For _content_, I would probably have given this book 4 or 5 stars. But the abysmal typography got a 1 (since there is no lower score). I've compromised by giving it 2 stars, but let's be honest - I returned this for a refund, because I couldn't read it.

Specifically, this book is ruined by a very poor autoconversion into ebook format. For a programming manual the bar is set by Stroustrup's C++ books which have very clear typographical separation between prose and code. In this book, all code examples are in the same serif font as the commentary, with no vertical spacing separating code and commentary. The result is that I spent most of the time trying to work out visually where the code example started, and why pieces of relevant example code were missing.

I _would_ buy this book again if the publisher were to proof read it and correct the above issues.

[Venkatesh-Prasad · Rating 4 out of 5]

For someone familiar with features of languages such as C and Java, this book provides a no-nonsense, accessible, and comprehensive coverage of Go programming language. While there seem to be some typos and language issues, it does not get in the way of quick reading and understanding. Listings of all examples are provided in full. This helps with code reading to understand the example and the discussed constructs.

The only downside is the book was published close to v1.0 Go. So, some of the content (I guess pertaining to tooling) may be obsolete. However, I seriously doubt if the core languages concepts are obsolete.

Just after reading this book, I started reading "Go in Action" (from 2016). So far, it has been a breeze reading "Go in Action" and I haven't found any discrepancies in the concepts covered due to newer version of Go.

At $3 on Kindle, this book is a great steal to learn about Go :)

[Alessandro Pellizzari · Rating 3 out of 5]

Copre effettivamente una buona parte delle caratteristiche del linguaggio, e l'ultimo terzo del libro è dedicato alla realizzazione di applicazioni che possono capitare nel "mondo reale".

Il problema è che molte cose sono mal spiegate, rendendole quasi incomprensibili. Perfino concetti che mi erano già chiari (perché uguali o simili in altri linguaggi) erano descritti talmente male da farmi pensare che in Go fossero implementati in modo diverso.

Inoltre ci sono molti errori grammaticali, e a volte il codice in mezzo al testo mantiene il font del testo, rendendo molto complicato capire dove finisca il comando, o distinguere una O maiuscola dal numero 0, per esempio.

[Vijay Tapaskar · Rating 3 out of 5]

I was new to Go, this book is good introduction to Go. Its first edition and have lot of typo's. The most annoying part was code listing references were off. It covers all the basic language constructs in good details. Advanced concepts needed more examples and the book overall code do with little bit of reorganization

[Alvaro Tejada Galindo · Rating 4 out of 5]

Nice book as it gives you a tour through all the important commands in Go...the problem is that it kinda feels like reading a HelpMe...some real life example would have been helpful and appreciated...

Still...is well done, well explained and it's sure a very important reference for any newbie Go developer...

[Piotr Zurek · Rating 2 out of 5]

Awful book. Feels more like somebody's notes from learning the language than a book written by an expert on it. Full of typos and other language error. The only redeeming quality is the amount of information covered.

[Katherine · Rating 4 out of 5]

I skipped the Goroutines part which is lengthy.
Overall, Go is very easy to learn for those who understand C or any C-like language.
This is a good book as it explains who to achieve OO in a language that really isn't object-oriented.

[Scott · Rating 3 out of 5]

Good general book. Confusing at times on more advanced topics and could be better organized but overall well done for the price.

[Anže · Rating 3 out of 5]

I used this book as a reference during my first bigger project in Go. I used it mainly to look up particular idioms and it served its purpose.

[Theblackshinobi · Rating 3 out of 5]

Best Practice Google Language !

[Yuriy]

Nice book about Go too.

[Jorge · Rating 4 out of 5]

a good place to start learning about the Go language.

[Minh Tran · Rating 5 out of 5]

Good

[Jayson Vibandor · Rating 4 out of 5]

The book is really good for beginner. The author explains golang fundamentals with great simplicity.

The only downside of this book is lack of formatting.

[Varun · Rating 2 out of 5]

Not a very good book. Better read official documentation.