<!--{
	"Title": "Documentation",
	"Path": "/doc/"
}-->

<p>
The Go programming language is an open source project to make programmers more
productive.
</p>

<p>
Go is expressive, concise, clean, and efficient. Its concurrency
mechanisms make it easy to write programs that get the most out of multicore
and networked machines, while its novel type system enables flexible and
modular program construction. Go compiles quickly to machine code yet has the
convenience of garbage collection and the power of run-time reflection. It's a
fast, statically typed, compiled language that feels like a dynamically typed,
interpreted language.
</p>

<div id="manual-nav"></div>

<h2>Installing Go</h2>

<h3><a href="/doc/install">Getting Started</a></h3>
<p>
Instructions for downloading and installing the Go compilers, tools, and
libraries.
</p>


<h2 id="learning">Learning Go</h2>

<img class="gopher" src="/doc/gopher/doc.png"/>

<h3 id="go_tour"><a href="http://tour.golang.org/">A Tour of Go</a></h3>
<p>
An interactive introduction to Go in three sections.
The first section covers basic syntax and data structures; the second discusses
methods and interfaces; and the third introduces Go's concurrency primitives.
Each section concludes with a few exercises so you can practice what you've
learned. You can <a href="http://tour.golang.org/">take the tour online</a> or
<a href="http://code.google.com/p/go-tour/">install it locally</a>.
</p>

<h3 id="code"><a href="code.html">How to write Go code</a></h3>
<p>
Also available as a
<a href="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XCsL89YtqCs">screencast</a>, this doc
explains how to use the <a href="/cmd/go/">go command</a> to fetch, build, and
install packages, commands, and run tests.
</p>

<h3 id="effective_go"><a href="effective_go.html">Effective Go</a></h3>
<p>
A document that gives tips for writing clear, idiomatic Go code.
A must read for any new Go programmer. It augments the tour and
the language specification, both of which should be read first.
</p>

<h3 id="ref"><a href="/ref/">Go References</a></h3>
<p>Language specification, memory model, and detailed documentation for the commands and packages.</p>

<h3 id="appengine"><a href="https://developers.google.com/appengine/docs/go/gettingstarted/">Getting Started with Go on App Engine</a></h3>
<p>
How to develop and deploy a simple Go project with
<a href="https://developers.google.com/appengine/">Google App Engine</a>.
</p>

<h3 id="go_faq"><a href="go_faq.html">Frequently Asked Questions (FAQ)</a></h3>
<p>
Answers to common questions about Go.
</p>

<h3 id="wiki"><a href="http://code.google.com/p/go-wiki/wiki">Go Language Community Wiki</a></h3>
<p>A wiki maintained by the Go community.</p>

<h2 id="go1">Go version 1</h2>

<h3 id="go1notes"><a href="/doc/go1.html">Go 1 Release Notes</a></h3>
<p>
A guide for updating your code to work with Go 1.
</p>

<h3 id="go1.1notes"><a href="/doc/go1.1.html">Go 1.1 Release Notes</a></h3>
<p>
A list of significant changes in Go 1.1, with instructions for updating your
code where necessary.
</p>

<h3 id="go1compat"><a href="/doc/go1compat.html">Go 1 and the Future of Go Programs</a></h3>
<p>
What Go 1 defines and the backwards-compatibility guarantees one can expect as
Go 1 matures.
</p>

<h2 id="articles">Go Articles</h2>

<h3 id="blog"><a href="http://blog.golang.org/">The Go Blog</a></h3>
<p>The official blog of the Go project, featuring news and in-depth articles by
the Go team and guests.</p>

<h4>Codewalks</h4>
<p>
Guided tours of Go programs.
</p>
<ul>
<li><a href="/doc/codewalk/functions">First-Class Functions in Go</a></li>
<li><a href="/doc/codewalk/markov">Generating arbitrary text: a Markov chain algorithm</a></li>
<li><a href="/doc/codewalk/sharemem">Share Memory by Communicating</a></li>
<li><a href="/doc/articles/wiki/">Writing Web Applications</a> - building a simple web application.</li>
</ul>

<h4>Language</h4>
<ul>
<li><a href="/doc/articles/json_rpc_tale_of_interfaces.html">JSON-RPC: a tale of interfaces</a></li>
<li><a href="/doc/articles/gos_declaration_syntax.html">Go's Declaration Syntax</a></li>
<li><a href="/doc/articles/defer_panic_recover.html">Defer, Panic, and Recover</a></li>
<li><a href="/doc/articles/concurrency_patterns.html">Go Concurrency Patterns: Timing out, moving on</a></li>
<li><a href="/doc/articles/slices_usage_and_internals.html">Go Slices: usage and internals</a></li>
<li><a href="http://blog.golang.org/2011/05/gif-decoder-exercise-in-go-interfaces.html">A GIF decoder: an exercise in Go interfaces</a></li>
<li><a href="/doc/articles/error_handling.html">Error Handling and Go</a></li>
</ul>

<h4>Packages</h4>
<ul>
<li><a href="/doc/articles/json_and_go.html">JSON and Go</a> - using the <a href="/pkg/encoding/json/">json</a> package.</li>
<li><a href="/doc/articles/gobs_of_data.html">Gobs of data</a> - the design and use of the <a href="/pkg/encoding/gob/">gob</a> package.</li>
<li><a href="/doc/articles/laws_of_reflection.html">The Laws of Reflection</a> - the fundamentals of the <a href="/pkg/reflect/">reflect</a> package.</li>
<li><a href="/doc/articles/image_package.html">The Go image package</a> - the fundamentals of the <a href="/pkg/image/">image</a> package.</li>
<li><a href="/doc/articles/image_draw.html">The Go image/draw package</a> - the fundamentals of the <a href="/pkg/image/draw/">image/draw</a> package.</li>
</ul>

<h4>Tools</h4>
<ul>
<li><a href="/doc/articles/go_command.html">About the Go command</a> - why we wrote it, what it is, what it's not, and how to use it.</li>
<li><a href="/doc/articles/c_go_cgo.html">C? Go? Cgo!</a> - linking against C code with <a href="/cmd/cgo/">cgo</a>.</li>
<li><a href="/doc/gdb">Debugging Go Code with GDB</a></li>
<li><a href="/doc/articles/godoc_documenting_go_code.html">Godoc: documenting Go code</a> - writing good documentation for <a href="/cmd/godoc/">godoc</a>.</li>
<li><a href="http://blog.golang.org/2011/06/profiling-go-programs.html">Profiling Go Programs</a></li>
<li><a href="/doc/articles/race_detector.html">Data Race Detector</a> - testing Go programs for race conditions.</li>
</ul>

<h2 id="talks">Talks</h2>

<img class="gopher" src="/doc/gopher/talks.png"/>

<p>
The talks marked with a red asterisk (<font color="red">*</font>) were written
before Go 1 and contain some examples that are no longer correct, but they are
still of value.
</p>

<h3 id="video_tour_of_go"><a href="http://research.swtch.com/gotour">A Video Tour of Go</a></h3>
<p>
Three things that make Go fast, fun, and productive:
interfaces, reflection, and concurrency. Builds a toy web crawler to
demonstrate these.
</p>

<h3 id="go_concurrency_patterns"><a href="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=f6kdp27TYZs">Go Concurrency Patterns</a></h3>
<p>
Concurrency is the key to designing high performance network services. Go's concurrency primitives (goroutines and channels) provide a simple and efficient means of expressing concurrent execution. In this talk we see how tricky concurrency problems can be solved gracefully with simple Go code.
</p>

<h3 id="meet_the_go_team"><a href="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sln-gJaURzk">Meet the Go team</a></h3>
<p>
A panel discussion with David Symonds, Robert Griesemer, Rob Pike, Ken Thompson, Andrew Gerrand, and Brad Fitzpatrick.
</p>

<h3 id="writing_web_apps"><a href="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-i0hat7pdpk">Writing Web Apps in Go</a><font color="red">*</font></h3>
<p>
A talk by Rob Pike and Andrew Gerrand presented at Google I/O 2011.
It walks through the construction and deployment of a simple web application
and unveils the <a href="http://blog.golang.org/2011/05/go-and-google-app-engine.html">Go runtime for App Engine</a>.
See the <a href="http://talks.golang.org/2011/Writing_Web_Apps_in_Go.pdf">presentation slides</a>.
</p>

<h3 id="go_programming"><a href="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jgVhBThJdXc">Go Programming</a><font color="red">*</font></h3>
<p>
A presentation delivered by Rob Pike and Russ Cox at Google I/O 2010.  It
illustrates how programming in Go differs from other languages through a set of
examples demonstrating features particular to Go.  These include concurrency,
embedded types, methods on any type, and program construction using interfaces.
</p>

<h4 id="talks_more">More</h4>
<p>
See the <a href="http://code.google.com/p/go-wiki/wiki/GoTalks">GoTalks
page</a> at the <a href="http://code.google.com/p/go-wiki/wiki">Go Wiki</a> for
more Go talks.
</p>

<h2 id="nonenglish">Non-English Documentation</h2>

<p>
See the <a href="http://code.google.com/p/go-wiki/wiki/NonEnglish">NonEnglish</a> page
at the <a href="http://code.google.com/p/go-wiki/wiki">Go Wiki</a> for localized
documentation.
</p>

<h2 id="community">The Go Community</h2>

<img class="gopher" src="/doc/gopher/project.png"/>

<h3 id="mailinglist"><a href="http://groups.google.com/group/golang-nuts">Go Nuts Mailing List</a></h3>
<p>The <a href="http://groups.google.com/group/golang-nuts">golang-nuts</a>
mailing list is for general Go discussion.</p>

<h3 id="projects"><a href="http://code.google.com/p/go-wiki/wiki/Projects">Go Wiki Projects Page</a></h3>
<p>A list of external Go projects including programs and libraries.</p>

<h3 id="irc"><a href="irc:irc.freenode.net/go-nuts">Go IRC Channel</a></h3>
<p><b>#go-nuts</b> on <b>irc.freenode.net</b> is the official Go IRC channel.</p>

<h3 id="plus"><a href="https://plus.google.com/101406623878176903605/posts">The Go Programming Language at Google+</a></h3>
<p>The Go project's Google+ page.</p>

<h3 id="twitter"><a href="http://twitter.com/go_nuts">@go_nuts at Twitter</a></h3>
<p>The Go project's official Twitter account.</p>