Go

Last Updated: October 20, 2017

Definition - What does Go mean?

Go is an open-source programming language developed at Google by Robert Griesemer, Rob Pike, and Ken Thompson in 2007. Although it is built in much the same way as C or Algol, unlike many other languages, it is not dependent on C in any way. One defining feature of Go is concurrency, which means that multiple processes can be executed at the same time, which makes Go an efficient language. It is also a verbose language which displays extended information. Its other features are memory management, structural typing, memory safety and CSP-style programming.

Go is also known as golang.

Techopedia explains Go

Go started as an experiment with the objective of addressing common criticisms of other programming languages while retaining their positive features.

The goals in creating Go included:

Ability to scale to larger systems like C++ and Java
Building a light and dynamic programming language which could adapt to changing requirements
Supporting tools, but not being dependent on tools
Supporting concurrency and networking

Go has been implemented in a number of places since it was announced in November 2009. Its compiler, gc, has been developed as open-source software and is targeted at various platforms such as Unix, Windows, OS X, BSD and Linux. Since 2015, it has also begun to be used with mobile devices.

Go offers fast compilation and can improve efficiency and remote package management.

This definition was written in the context of Programming Languages