gopherlings

📘️ Learn Go by fixing tiny incorrect programs

This project was directly inspired by the great ziglings project which itself was inspired by rustlings.

For a first time learner it is suggested you complement this material with another source such as

• Go by example. A lot of material here is based on this project!
• Go go-to guide by yourbasic. Great source for beginners.
• Decaffeinator project which contains the Tagalong document with Python and Go examples side-by-side along with some examples on using Go for creating generative art.

Intended Audience

These exercises will probably be difficult if you've never programmed before.

The exercises should be self-contained and self-explained, though this is a WIP and suggestions are welcome!

Instructions: Running exercises

Requires a Go installation to run the examples.

Instructions using VSCode

1. Download the repository (or alternatively clone it)

2. Install the VSCode Go extension authored by Go Team at Google

3. Open the gopherlings folder in VSCode

4. Navigate to the exercise file, i.e. exercises/001-hello/hello.go

5. Once the hello.go file is open you may edit it and press <kbd>F5</kbd> to run it. Output will be shown in the Debug Console.

Instructions using terminal

1. Clone repository

   git clone https://github.com/soypat/gopherlings.git 
   

2. Navigate to example's directory

   cd gopherlings/exercises/001-hello
   

3. Edit the file so it is correct and run it with go run

   go run hello.go
   

   Optionally, instead of step 3, use gopherlings watch to auto reload your code after you save your code. Then you will see your code output without any action. You can simply focus on your code.

   go install github.com/soypat/gopherlings/cmd/gopherlings@latest
   gopherlings watch
   gopherlings help  # To see other commands
   

   Note: You need to define your GOBIN environment variable before running go install and add it to your PATH. GOBIN specifies the directory to which go binaries are installed to.

Roadmap

Short term

• Add quizzes after $n$ exercises.
  • Possibly add several quizzes of varying difficulty inside quiz directory.
• Improve the helper program.
  • A hint subcommand or interactive hints during the watch command.
  • Allow run to take an argument that runs a specific exercise.
  • Add a subcommand to run all exercises and check them against expected output.
  • Catch errors that prevent the helper from running exercises (like an incomplete Go installation).

Long term

• Have exercises that cover the entire Go spec.