The Applied Go Weekly Newsletter keeps you updated on new Go articles, Go projects, and more. This is an independent newsletter made by Christoph Berger of [appliedgo.net](https://appliedgo.net).
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A (Sand)Box Of Go Hi , I know, this newsletter is in summer break right now, but I thought I'd send you a small "mid-break" issue. I've been experimenting with Microsandbox, a microVM that's dead simple to use, for a few months now. I prepared a Spotlight article about it back then, but the tool wasn't super stable at that time. So I continued using Microsandbox VMs and watched the project…
Modernizing Hi , How to modernize source code? One bit at a time. The go fix tool suggests modernizing changes to given code on demand, and gopls does it even on the fly. There are good reasons for modernizing code: the modern variant can be more efficient, more robust, more readable, or any combination of these. Too bad there's no go fix for other parts of our lives! Summer Break This newsletter…
Tame the thundering (goroutine) herds! Hi , Spawning goroutines has marginal costs: 2KB of initial stack space, and a tad bit more work for the scheduler. But when not managed properly, they can bring your system down by side-effects; be it an undetected goroutine leak or very intentional mechanisms like fallback behavior for a cache miss. A handful or a few dozen of gorutines would make either…
The Smart Gopher Gets The Cheese Hi , You may know the saying: "The second mouse gets the cheese." Sure, it does—after the first mouse got killed by the trap. Gophers, fortunately, aren't exposed to life-threatening traps, so whenever they fall into one, they always survive to tell the tale. So did the authors of the three featured articles. They observed various constraints and traps: A request…
The Unexamined Code Hi , Would you attempt to repair a bicycle without having an idea how the parts work, how to take them apart and put them together again? Would you work on an unfamiliar codebase (including the code you can't remember having writtten six months ago) without getting at least a rough overview of its architecture? Knowing the code you work with has many (obvious) advantages.…
The World Is An Experiment Hi , Academic theories and models are a fundamental part of scientific research, but failing to test a theory against reality can become outright dangerous . Real-world experiments can be guardrails and booster rockets for theories. That's why the Go team frequently releases new ideas as Go Experiments before deciding whether to add them to Go or toss them in the…
Bulletproof Hi , Make it work, make it robust, make it fast: The first is easy, the third is optional. Number two is underestimated until prod is down. Making code robust isn't rocket science, however. Experience and the right set of tools and techniques help to make code robust against inside and outside risks (read: bugs and attacks). In this issue's spotlight, I share a few techniques as a…
Is It Tuesday Again? Hi , While the past weekend was longer than usual, due to a public holiday over here, it didn't give me a chance to complete this newsletter on time. Or to complete it at all in the way I planned. As I'm writing this, I sit in front of two unfinished Spotlights I intended to include in this issue. (Nah, not both at once; I rather switched from a subject I considered "long" to…
It Works. (But Why?) Hi , In this week's featured articles, you can inspect the Go compiler, examine error handling gone wrong, and dissect a simple archive format. But why should you? Too often, we just expect that things just work . But understanding why these things work (or why they break) gives us more than just temporary satisfaction. Have you ever had a mental picture of a machine, an…
No More Excuses Hi , All my true readers can skip the first featured article. You don't have to be convinced anymore! For everyone else, if you're still not sure if Go is for you, read it. Blain Smith gives you gentle hints about how Go makes a difference. (Warning: NSFW.) After that, you'll have no more excuses for not trying Go. Trust me. –Christoph Featured articles Just Fucking Use Go When I…
