Quick General Facts About Go
The Go Project
When was Go conceived?
In September 2007.
Who created Go?
Robert Griesemer, Rob Pike, and Ken Thompson.
Where did the creators work?
They worked at Google.
When was Go publicly announced?
November 2009.
The Go Language
Go is specially well-suited for what types of systems?
Networked servers, tools and systems for developers.
Go is syntactically similar to what other language?
C.
How does Go manages memory?
Go is a garbage collected language.
Go is a general purpose language. What does it mean?
This means that Go can be used for building essentially any type of application, like mobile apps, machine learning, graphics, web apps, etc.
Is Go open-source?
Yes, and this includes the source code for its compiler, libraries and tools.
Where can you run Go programs?
Unix-like systems — Linux, Mac OS X, etc. — Plan 9 and Microsoft Windows.
What are some of the ancestors of Go?
ALGOL 60, Pascal, C, Modula-2, Oberon, CSP, Alef are some of the languages that inspired Go.
What did Go inherit from C?
Its expression syntax, control-flow statements, basic data types, call-by-value parameter passing, pointers, and C’s emphasis on programs that compile to efficient machine code and cooperate naturally with the abstractions of current operating systems.
What did Go inherit from Modula-2?
The package concept.
What did Go inherit from Oberon-2?
The syntax for packages, imports and declarations.
What did Go inherit from CSP?
Channels.
What are some of the features from high-level languages that Go implements well?
Garbage collection, a package system, first-class functions, lexical scope, a system call interface, and immutable strings where text is encoded in UTF-8.
