Channels ▼  Open Source  Getting Going with Go  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.  Getting Going  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 5g, 6g, an