• Go is case sensitive.
    • Identifiers such as function, variable and type names have to be spelt exactly.
    • Most variable and package are lower and mixed case.
      • Methods however (functions belonging to types)
      • Fields (variables that are members of types)
        • Both of these frequently have uppercase characters.
    • An initial uppercase character in Go, means the symbol is exported.
      • The equivalent of the keyword public in other langues like Java and C#.
    • A lowercase initial character means that the field or method isn’t exported and isn’t available to the rest of the application.
  • Semicolons are not usually needed.
    • Line feed ends a statement - no semicolon is required.
      • No need for semicolons at the end of lines.
    • For example, this is an array in Go: 
      var colours [2]string
colours[0] = "black"
colours[1] = "white"
  • Semicolons are part of the formal language spec, but not needed to be typed.
    • The lexer (software component that parses and analyses the code), adds them during the compilation process.
      • This means that GO is sensitive to whitespace.
        • Including line feeds, tabs and so on.
  • The semicolons are added when the statement is complete and the Lexer detects a line feed (end of statement).
    • It therefore means that you cannot always add line feeds freely or break up line statements as you would do in other languages.
      • In certain circumstances, these can be misinterpreted by the Lexer.
  • Code blocks are wrapped with braces.
    • This is an example code block: 
      sum := 0
for i := 0; i < 10; i++ {
   sum += i
}
fmt.Println(sum) //prints '45'
  • In the above example, a variable name called sum is being declared and then looping from 0 to 10. The value is being incrementally added every time. The value is then output using a function Println (Print Line). This is a member of a package called fmt and the value of 45 is then output.
    • The first brace in the code block, must be on the same line as any proceeding statement. Cannot drop the brace to the next blank line.
    • Go has a set of builtin functions, that are always available in your code. No requirement to import anything.
      • The functions are members of a special package called builtin.
      • Go compiler assumes that the Go package is always imported.
  • Example built-in packages:
    • len(string) - returns the length of a string.
    • panic(error) - stops execution; displays error message.
    • recover() - manages behaviour of a panicking goroutine.
  • Can learn more about those packages, as well as other functions and types, at:
  • https://golang.org/pkg/builtin

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