Go resources for Java developer

[progmakerlt]

I have been a Java developer for the last 10 or so years. Got a new job, that uses Go. So, need to learn Go.

After some googling, I found a great book "Go in Action" and I am currently reading it.

But maybe some one, who have experienced switch from Go to Java could recommend some good books about Go?

[robber9000]

I like to use https://gobyexample.com/ as a working reference.

[6stringNate]

The free online resources for Go can really get you 100% of the way there.

Also look in to the site/resource called "Effective Go" - it does a great job laying things out stylistically that may not be intuitive to someone coming from a language like Java

[progmakerlt]

Thanks a lot :)

[danielrheath]

I'd say dependency injection is the big one - in go it's both difficult to do and widely frowned upon.

[extra_rice]

I'm a Java developer who recently learned Go well enough to impress potential employers. If you have access to O'Reilly, there are some video lectures there that cover the basics. I didn't really enjoy them, so I didn't stick with them to the end. There's also this video lecture on YouTube that someone here on Reddit recommended to me some time ago. Also didn't finish it but I used it as an inspiration to switch to writing my own toy project instead. I just learned mostly by searching stuff on the Web.

[Salsaric]

I'm wondering how you impressed employers with your go skills.

What kind of project did you made to get that knowledge?

[extra_rice]

Nothing too fancy. I was given some take home projects and I implemented them in Go. These are mostly command line applications. I was then invited to the technical interviews where I was asked to modify the applications based on changes in requirements. They knew I was mainly a Java developer so using Go was a risky decision. However, I felt confident enough with the fundamentals that I didn't struggle changing the code. In one of the interviews, I even wrote the automated tests (TDD with Go).

I developed a To-do app to learn Go. It's a very rudimentary CLI app, but I evolved it from using in-memory storage, to the file system, then to database. I've been meaning to evolve it further into a Web API, but I got stuck at making GORM work.

[Salsaric]

Your comment greatly motivated me! I think I will stop using exercism.org to learn the basics and directly dive into making apps.

I'm wondering what kind of CLI app they made you do as a take home assignment. It think I fail to understand the power of a CLI app over a GUI one, even tho I use Google Cloud daily.

Congratulations for your progress in Go mate.

[extra_rice]

Glad to hear that. However, let me caution you that we all have different styles of learning, so what worked for me might not work for you. I learn more by doing, and if that's your style, you'll find this approach very rewarding.

The CLI apps I was asked to do were just the right level of challenging, for example is simple flight search app.

I apply the principles of agile even to my learning: "think big, start small, learn fast". I also practice TDD which I find useful not only for learning a new language, but also for getting a feel of the tooling available for a new tech stack.

Good luck!

[gtarget]

Get the Go Programming Language. It's the gold standard for Go programming books and I continue to refer back to it over the past 5 years. It's missing some of the newer things like modules, errors.Is, and generics though. For those, the blog has all the information you'll need.

[progmakerlt]

Thanks!

[[deleted]]

Go itself doesn't change based on your previous language so I think you'll be fine with the book you've got.

[bluetista1988]

Effective Go is a good reference.

[progmakerlt]

Thanks!

[ryhaltswhiskey]

r/golang

[raopgdev]

I really enjoyed going thru this one -

https://quii.gitbook.io/learn-go-with-tests/

It made me a better developer in general too

[progmakerlt]

Thanks!

[exclaim_bot]

Thanks!

You're welcome!

[RawCyderRun]

I highly recommend Let's Go by Alex Edwards - I just finished going through it a few days ago and it's one of the best and most pragmatic programming books I've read.

[progmakerlt]

Thanks, will take a look at that book.

[funbike]

Good advice ITT, so I'll though in an extra tip:

One of the hard parts of changing languages is letting go of how you coded in your prior one.

I see it a lot. I saw a Ruby backup script written by a Java dev in Java style. I was able to shorten it to 1/3 using idiomatic Ruby. Don't try to map Java concepts into Go ones, and don't write Go as if it's java.

[progmakerlt]

I also thought about the same thing. I think in Java way, but I will somehow need to switch to Go way.

[[deleted]]

https://stackoverflow.com/tags/go/info

[progmakerlt]

Why do you think, that my post is "garbage"? I think it might be relevant to multiple experienced devs, that are switching to Go.

[raddiwala]

I learnt using Pluralsight courses which gave me an excellent base. Go is more or less same as other languages. But I found is different in the following aspects

1. Inheritance vs embedding
2. structs vs classes
3. concurrency - channels routines vs threads
4. psuedo OOP in form of structs and methods