Become a real programmer in Go

[Parastoo]

Hello everybody,

I’m a new Go learner. In fact, I don’t have a Computer Science background and I learned some programming languages on my own.

Since I learned Go, it has become my favorite language. The problem is that I completely understand a Go code but when it comes to writing a program I don’t know how to do it.

How can I improve my skills in Go? How can I become a good programmer in Go? Has anyone encountered my problem before? Do you have any suggestions?

I’ll appreciate your responses.

[christophberger]

This is absolutely normal. It is the same as with spoken languages. You understand what your teacher says long before you can build sentences (other than very simple ones) on your own. Hearing and speaking, or reading and writing, involve different parts of the brain.

If you don’t know how to write a particular program, then maybe the program is too big and complicated. Just like when learning to speak in another human language, start with simple things first.

Play with small functions, inspect things like slices or maps until you get a feel for how these work. Use the Go playground to get immediate results.

Over time your writing skills will improve, it is just a matter of exercising, and exercising again.

[Parastoo]

Thank you, Christoph. That helped a lot. You’re completely right. I’ve never thought about it like that.

Thanks again.