This book is targeted at developers who are looking to pick up a second (or fifth) language. The focus is on people who are new to Go. This ranges from those who don’t know anything about Go other than it has a cute mascot, to those who have already worked through a Go tutorial or even written some Go code. The focus for Learning Goisn’t just how to write programs in Go; it’s how to write Go idiomatically. More experienced Go developers can find advice on how to best use the newer features of the language. The most important thing is that the reader wants to learn how to write Go code that looks like Go.

Experience is assumed with the tools of the developer trade, such as version control (preferably Git) and IDEs. Readers should be familiar with basic computer science concepts like concurrency and abstraction, as the book explains how they work in Go. Some of the code examples are downloadable from GitHub and dozens more can be tried out online on The Go Playground. While an internet connection isn’t required, it is helpful when reviewing executable examples. Since Go is often used to build and call HTTP servers, some examples assume familiarity with basic HTTP concepts.

While most of Go’s features are found in other languages, Go makes different tradeoffs, so programs written in it have a different structure. Learning Go starts by looking at how to set up a Go development environment, and then covers variables, types, control structures, and functions. If you are tempted to skip over this material, resist the urge and take a look. It is often the details that make your Go code idiomatic. Some of what seems obvious at first glance might actually be subtly surprising when you think about it in depth.

本书针对的是那些希望学习第二种（或第五种）语言的开发者。重点是那些刚接触Go的人。这包括那些除了有一个可爱的吉祥物之外对Go一无所知的人，以及那些已经通过Go教程或甚至写过一些Go代码的人。学习Go的重点不仅仅是如何用Go编写程序，而是如何以习惯性方式编写Go。更有经验的Go开发者可以找到关于如何最好地使用该语言较新功能的建议。最重要的是，读者想要学习如何编写看起来像Go的代码。

本书假定对开发者的贸易工具有经验，如版本控制（最好是Git）和IDE。读者应该熟悉基本的计算机科学概念，如并发和抽象，因为书中解释了它们在Go中的作用。一些代码实例可以从GitHub上下载，还有几十个可以在Go Playground上在线试用。虽然不需要互联网连接，但在审查可执行的例子时，互联网连接是有帮助的。由于Go经常被用来构建和调用HTTP服务器，所以有些例子需要熟悉基本的HTTP概念。

虽然Go的大部分功能在其他语言中也能找到，但Go做出了不同的取舍，所以用它编写的程序具有不同的结构。学习Go，首先要看如何设置Go的开发环境，然后涉及变量、类型、控制结构和函数。如果你想跳过这些材料，请忍住冲动，看一看。往往是这些细节使你的围棋代码变得习以为常。有些乍一看很明显的东西，当你深入思考时，实际上可能会有微妙的惊喜。