Hello, and welcome to learning Go! It's great to have you here. This is the bundled edition of ‘For the Love of Go’, a book introducing the Go programming language, suitable for complete beginners, plus an accompanying video course where I’ll walk you step-by-step through every part of the material. If you don't know anything about Go yet, or programming, but would like to learn, you're in the right place! If you do already know something about Go, you should still find the course and book fun and interesting. Includes free updates for life.

Reviews

⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐ “I really really like how you explain what is going on, step by step. And I like your approach with splitting up the editor to show test code side by side the code we need to write to satisfy tests.”
—Jakub Jarosz

⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐ “Very well written—friendly and informative.”
—Chris Doyle

⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐ “Unlike other Go books, this book’s writing style feels as if John is speaking to you in person and helping you along the way during the hands-on sections. Definitely worth reading!”
—@rockey5520

⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐ “His books on Go are a fantastic example of good technical writing. Clear, concise and easily digestible. I recommend picking them up for anyone getting into Go.”
—Michael Duffy

⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐ “Both the books and video hit that sweet spot of introducing the Go language while building real world code. Pacing is great and I didn't feel like the material was over my head. Writing code along with the video, in particular, works well for me. Watching an expert write and narrate both working and non-working code is great to see and hear.”
—Jackson Kato

⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐ “A simple and elegant way of having fun learning Go for time-crunched people like me.”
—Manuel Fontán García

About the book

Throughout the book we'll be working together to develop a fun and useful project in Go: an online bookstore called Happy Fun Books!

Each chapter introduces a new feature or concept, and sets you some goals to achieve, with complete, step-by-step explanations of how to solve them, and full code listings with accompanying tests.

What you’ll learn

By reading this book and working through all the challenges and exercises, you'll learn:

• How to write tests in Go and how to develop projects test-first

• How to manage data in Go using built-in types, user-defined struct types, and collections such as maps and slices

• How to use objects to model problems in Go, and how to add behaviour to objects using methods

• How to use pointers to write methods for objects, and how to use types and validation to make your Go packages a delight to use

• How to build powerful, flexible programs using control structures like loops and functions

Even more importantly, you’ll learn a simple, fun, and effective way to approach software engineering projects in Go. Even though the material is beginner-friendly, you’ll be mastering intermediate and advanced techniques such as test-driven development (TDD) and learning to design modules, packages, and APIs. These are essential skills in any modern software engineering role.

Table of contents

About the video course

I’ve taught Go programming to hundreds of students, and I’ve found that what tends to work best is a friendly, relaxed, and engaging approach. There are no rambling introductions or slides of bullet points: instead, you’ll be working right alongside me to build fun and useful projects in Go, like a calculator, or an online bookstore. Step by step, the basic concepts of Go will slot into place in a logical way as you use them to build realistic applications.

Every time the course introduces a new idea, there’ll be a challenge for you to solve, to help you practice the concept and make sure you’ve understood it. It’s helpful to absorb one idea fully before moving on to the next, and the course is structured in exactly this way.

What you get

Your digital download is a ZIP file containing the book in PDF format. This should be suitable for any ebook reader, Kindle, computer, phone, or tablet.

The download also contains a PDF file containing instructions for using the video course, including the link to view or download the online video files. If you have any trouble downloading or using the course materials, just get in touch for help.

You can watch the first part of the course free on YouTube and also read a sample chapter of the book: Happy Fun Books.

Updating to the latest edition

All my books come with free updates for life, so if you’ve bought a previous version of this book, here’s what you need to do to get the latest edition. Click the link in your original download email (make sure you save this, as it’s your key to future updates). You’ll see what looks like an error page saying your download link for the old edition has expired, but that’s okay: click the link in the text, and you’ll be sent a new download email for the current edition.