Hi there 👋

Embedded Programming is my passion

• Still sticking with C (liking function pointer arrays) in micro-controllers.

My favorite PC language is Go

Why?

• Go is open source, sponsored, professionally developed and used by Google.
• Go is a multi-purpose language.
  • It supports graphics not directly but GUI frameworks are around.
• Go is object oriented.
  • Go uses composition instead of inheritance - programs get cleaner this way.
• In Go interfaces are implicit - they need no explicit declaration.
  • This allows clean and simple APIs in your code without unneeded dependencies.
• Go is easy to learn, to use and gives quick programming success.
  • OSCON 2010: Rob Pike, "Public Static Void"
  • dotGo 2015 - Rob Pike - Simplicity is Complicated
  • Expressiveness of Go PDF
• Go is a compiled language, therefore checks a lot before building the code.
  • You get most errors at compile-time and not at run-time as with scripting languages (like Python). The Go compiler itself is fast. It allows script like usage of Go as well.
  • The Go program execution is fast.
    • Could be about half speed of a well written C program - not relevant for normal use cases. To get an equivalent "well written C programm" takes much longer than getting the Go program for a specific task.
• Go is a managed language making memory leaks impossible.
  • No explicit memory allocation and free.
• Go supports slices, a very light array management struct.
• Go has pointers but no pointer arithmetic, making code more reliable this way.
• Go is designed to use multi-core machines and single-core ones and allows easy multi-threading and inter-process communication.
  • Concurrent programming using Go rotines and channels allow efficient program structures.
  • Parallel execution allows to use the full multicore power of modern systems easyly.
  • Concurrency is not Parallelism by Rob Pike
• The auto-formatting as languge part is very comfortable.
  • This allows a bunch of helper tools.
• A testing environment comes with the language. Fuzzying is supported.
  • Simply create my_test.go files inside your Go package and run go test ./... in the project root.
• You get a stand-alone runnable without libraries dependencies.
  • No missing library anymore.
  • No install ... before running an executable.
• Many platforms are supprted, also mobile development.
• Go has an integrated documentation System.
  • Just add comments to your functions.
• Easy Visibility control: Packages export UppercaseFunction and hide lowerCaseFunction.
• Go can use C/C++-code and vice versa, but crossing the border takes time, so avoid that in loops.
  • CGO
  • SWIG
• Compatibility: Legacy Go code runs on new Go versions.
• Go has generics now.

Disadvantages?

• Not made for small microcontrollers.
  • BUT: There is TinyGo.
• Not well suited for fast hard real-time applications on sub-millisecond level because of the stop-the-world garbage collector.
  • BUT: The GC gets better and better with new Go versions AND avoiding that Go uses the heap heavily, avoids GC at all.

More Information

• Should you learn Go in 2023?
• Google I/O 2010 - Go Programming
• Understanding the Go Compiler - Jesús Espino
• Learn GO Fast: Full Tutoria (Go in 1 hour)
• Learn Go Programming - Golang Tutorial for Beginners (Golang in 7 hours)
• 7 common mistakes in Go and when to avoid them by Steve Francia (Docker)
• Gorilla Toolkit for Golang is revived! But is it too late?
• Build a REST API from scratch with Go, Docker & Postgres | Go Tutorial
• The Go Language: What Makes it Different?
• Top 3 Programming Languages for 2019
• Reasons Why Golang is Better Than Other Programming Languages
• Watch "5 Reasons Why Golang is The Best Programming Language to Learn in 2021 (including golang drawbacks)" on YouTube
• A curated list of awesome Go frameworks, libraries and software
• Golang For Mobile Development

Some Details

• GitHub Go
• The Go playground
• Concurrency in Go
• Managing dependencies
• Why are interfaces needed in Golang?
• Implementing Golang Interfaces
• Testing Techniques
• Arrays, slices (and strings)

Examples

• Golang: File Tree Traversal (filepath.Walk)
• Simple golang expirement with ANSI colors · GitHub
• Binary Search Algorithm Implemented in Go
• A Go unikernel running on x86 bare metal

Learning

• The Go Programming Language by Alan A. A. Donovan & Brian W. Kernighan

What I use Go for?

• The Trice tool is written in Go.
• Test tools stimulating embedded devices under test.