Back in October 2013 after writing the GoingGo.net blog for a few months, I received a call from Brian Ketelsen and Erik St. Martin. They were in the process of writing this book and asked if I would be a part of it. I jumped at the opportunity and started writing. I was still very new to Go at the time, so this was a great chance to learn more about the language, work with Brian and Erik and share what I learned at a greater scale than the blog.
After we finished the first four chapters, we released the book under the Manning Early Access Program (MEAP). Soon after, we received an email from a member of the language team. This person provided a review that contained a detailed set of changes plus a wealth of knowledge, advice, encouragement, and support. From there, we decided to rewrite chapter 2 from scratch and performed a major overhaul of chapter 4. We learned that rewriting chapters was not going to be the exception but the norm. That experience also taught us that it was going to take the help of the community to write this book, and we needed to make that happen immediately.
Ever since then, this book has been a community effort. We have tried to put a proper amount of time in researching each chapter, developing code samples, and working with the community to review, discuss, and edit the material and code. We have done our best to make sure this book is technically correct, shows only idiomatic code, and teaches you Go the way the community feels it should be written and thought about. We do have some of our own thoughts, practices, and guidelines sprinkled in as well.
We hope this book helps you learn Go and you find it a useful resource today and for many years to come. Brian, Erik, and I are always online and available to help anyone who reaches out to us. If you purchased the book, thank you, and don’t be shy about saying “hi.”
WILLIAM KENNEDY