This tutorial series will run for five consecutive weeks. In
this installment, Go expert Mark Summerfield explains how to set
up Go, and then he provides two examples of Go programs that are
explained in depth. The programs provide a partial overview of
Go's key features and some of its key packages. The following
weeks' installments will show the remaining key features and dig
into many aspects that make Go a uniquely interesting language,
especially for C, C++, and Java programmers. As explained in
this week's editorial, Go has many unique features and might be
described as C for the 21st century. Given that one of the
language's designers is Ken Thompson, the languages do indeed
share a common ancestor. —Ed. Go programs are compiled rather
than interpreted. Compilation is very fast—dramatically faster
than some other languages—most notably C and C++. The standard
Go compiler is called gc and its toolchain includes programs
such as 8g for compiling, 8l for linking, and godoc for viewing
the Go documentation