Re:Free Book: An Introduction to Programming in Go
by georgemcbay on Tuesday September 04, 2012 @02:57AM
(#4473463)
There's really not much point in covering that in a book beyond pointing you to http://golang.org/doc/install
Go is dead simple to install to Linux via either binary or source. Even building it from scratch on non-standard Linux systems like embedded armv5 systems is easy. Basically if you have a non-broken gcc already, go will build just by invoking one single shell script they provide.
Re:Free Book: An Introduction to Programming in Go
by spiffworks on Tuesday September 04, 2012 @05:51AM
(#4473835)
I have been really impressed with Go's portability. I recently cross compiled a binary from a Linux machine for an ARM target and had it running from scratch in less than 15 minutes. Go could become a serious option for embedded Linux targets.
Re:Free Book: An Introduction to Programming in Go
by georgemcbay on Tuesday September 04, 2012 @03:48PM
(#4476207)
I agree. My current spare-time project involves programming in Go for ARMv5-based boards (old chumby devices).
I write the code in Windows (Sublime Text 2), compile in Windows, but target GOOS=linux, GOARCH=ARM, GOARM=5 and end up with an executable that I can easily rsync and run over on the ARM device. The cross-compiling available in Go is much easier to setup initially than the usual situation of having to build an entire toolchain for your target.
Not that installing Linux is difficult, just that A. I suspect we'll see a lot more people on Linux computers, especially in the developing world, and B. beginning programmers should be introduced to the concept of Linux as a programming environment