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In the previous chapter, we covered the basics of GO data types and, in a few examples, used flow control to print messages.

In this chapter, we’ll use what we learned about comparison operators and boolean values to learn more about flow control.

Elements of Flow control

Programs are like water in a river because they tend to flow in one direction. And like water in a river, parts of it can go off into separate outlets based upon the river’s conditions, such as a boulder in the stream or a dam.

In this chapter, I’ll cover the basics you’ll need for writing programs in GO. Things like using the toolchain, data types, and some handy conversions. I will use plenty of examples in the upcoming sections. It’s okay if they do not make sense; we aim for familiarity, not mastery. That said, the best way to learn any programming language is to code along to build muscle memory, so crack open your new installation, Visual Studio Code editor.

A developer environment can mean several things, but for you, it means getting your laptop or desktop configured to write GO and run GO programs.

I’ll show you the easiest ways of installing GO for the two most common personal computer operating systems; Windows and macOS.

Both will require a package manager for either a Windows or Mac machine; a package manager is a tool that makes installing and managing software easier.