Why We Love Golang for Next-gen Application Development

Despite the presence of numerous programming languages such as Java, C, C++, Python, PHP, and many more, the newest entry, Golang, has been able to create ripples in the programming domain. What does Golang offer that makes it so special?

Before we talk about why Golang is preferred by developers for enterprise applications, here’s an introduction to this new and growing programming language.

What is Golang?

As an open-source programming language, Golang was initially developed by some brilliant Google engineers (way back in 2007) and was publicly released in 2012. Over the next few years, this language moved up the “ladder” to become one of the leading programming languages in the world.

According to the TIOBE Index, Golang rose from 54th position in January 2016 to 13th in January 2017. More recently, a 2019 Golang survey of developers found that 86% of Golang developers say this language is working well for their project – while 89% will continue to prefer this tool for their next project. Similarly, the 2020 Stack Overflow Developer Survey found that Golang is among the favorite programming tools.

As the programming world is getting hooked on Golang, here are a few reasons why we believe Golang should be preferred for application development.

Why we Love Golang for Next-gen Application Development

It is simple and stable

The major reason why Google engineers – Robert Griesemer, Rob Pike, and Ken Thompson – designed Golang was that they were frustrated with the complexities of other languages. What they wanted was a simpler and easy-to-learn language, which became the biggest selling point for Go.

Here are some reasons that make Golang simple to learn:

It has a smaller syntax base (as compared to other languages) that even beginners can learn without breaking a sweat.
It is simple for those who know programming basics like the C language (which is more difficult to learn).
Application developers can start to code in Golang (in just a few hours) – along with faster compilation.
The Golang code is clean and can be effortlessly comprehended by any programmer. Plus, the language is explicit and can be directly compiled into machine code.

Apart from ease and simplicity, Golang provides stability, a major requirement for high-performing enterprise applications. Here are some reasons that make Golang secure and stable:

It helps the compiler to catch bugs effortlessly and this allows developers to fix the bugs as soon as possible. For instance, a lot of errors are caught during the compile time itself. Unused variables are treated as errors during compilation. The same is the case with unused package imports. Also, compilation flags such -race helps find race conditions (although limited) during compilation itself.
Golint is a code analysis tool provided by Golang that helps in understanding the code and it maintains the code writing standards.

Great Performance

A crucial element of enterprise applications is the performance factor. With its smaller syntax and concurrency model, Golang provides a faster application experience and performance.

Here are some reasons why Golang improves application performance:

It requires lesser system resources and can work efficiently even on older devices.
It consumes less memory, making it ideal for creating applications that can run on low-end devices.
Golang is faster than any other interpreted languages or those using virtual machines through direct compilation to machine code.
Inbuilt support for channels and Go-routines make it easier to communicate amongst concurrently and parallelly running Go-routines.

Go-routines are similar to threads but still lightweight in comparison to OS threads. Additionally, channels are inherently Go-routine safe and thus it becomes easier to practice data synchronization between Go-routines.

Flexibility and Cross-platform Support

While we are only talking about enterprise application development, Golang is equally efficient and flexible in the development of other applications like one-page web applications.

Apart from that, Golang also offers cross-platform support, which is necessary when it comes to enterprise applications. Golang developers can easily write application code on different platforms.

Powerful Library Support

A feature-rich programming language requires powerful library support, which is fulfilled in the Golang language. Golang has a vast and growing library that allows the developers to perform several tasks without requiring third-party support.

Here are some library-related features in Golang:

Built-in functions for working with primitive data types.
Library package with web server support, handling of I/O, cryptography, and much more.
Ideal for creating sophisticated web services, Golang’s binary file is up to 10-times smaller than Java, thus enabling faster loading.

Golang’s rich library with multiple features makes it the perfect language for enterprise application development and other development tasks.

Backed by Google

Over the last few decades, Google has been dominating the Internet world with its technological innovations in the Cloud and Search engine domain. Golang is backed by this dominant brand and will keep evolving with the world’s best programming talent at its disposal.

Here is why Google backing is “good news” for the future of the Golang language:

Large and growing online community base with already over half a million contributors.
Google’s reputation of creating user-friendly products with maximum efficiency.
Guarantee of continued financial support and updates.

Conclusion

In summary, we have discussed why Golang is one of the fastest-growing programming languages at the moment and will dominate the application development space within a few years. Even the CEO of Shopify, Tobias Lutke believes the same. He had famously said that “Go will be the server language of the future.”

For something as crucial as enterprise application development, Golang is the ideal language, thanks to its various features like easy and fast compilation, rich library support, and scalability.

With its focus on next-generation application development, Sagacity has a growing team of professionals who are well-versed with Golang and other languages.

Wondering about how to build a fast and reliable enterprise application? Get in touch with us today.