The Go programming language is coming to Google App Engine

May 10, 2011


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By David Symonds, Nigel Tao, and Andrew Gerrand of the Go Team

The growing ranks of Go programmers will soon have another platform: Go will be the third language, after Python and Java, in which to write Google App Engine apps. This is an exciting new experimental feature of App Engine and a major milestone for Go.

Go is an open source language, initially designed at Google, that was released in November 2009 and has seen significant development since launch. It is a statically typed, compiled language with a dynamic and lightweight feel. It’s also an interesting new option for App Engine because Go apps will be compiled to native code, making Go a good choice for more CPU-intensive tasks. Plus the garbage collection and concurrency features of the language, combined with excellent libraries, make it a great fit for web apps.

As of today, the App Engine SDK for Go is available for download, and we will soon enable deployment of Go apps into the App Engine infrastructure. If you’re interested in starting early, sign up to be first through the door when we open it up to early testers. Once it proves solid, we’ll open it up to everyone, although it will remain an experimental App Engine feature for a while.

You don’t need an existing Go installation; the SDK is fully self-contained, so it’s very simple to get a local web app up and running. The SDK is a really easy way to start playing with Go.

More details can be found at the Go Programming Language blog.

Posted by Scott Knaster, Editor