Getting Started devlog (#21)

* getting started draft

* cleanup

* grammar fixes

docs/src/blog/getting-started-with-go-and-emacs.org

@@ -0,0 +1,75 @@
+---
+title: Getting started with Go (and Emacs)
+date: 2024-03-01 18:22:47
+layout: post
+lang: en
+tags: [golang, emacs]
+---
+#+OPTIONS: toc:nil num:nil
+#+LANGUAGE: en
+
+Dumping some notes I took while I was setting up my environment and reading the bare minimum to get started with Go programming.
+
+*** Go setup
+- I'm on Mac and I had some older version of Go already installed, so I had to ~brew uninstall go~.
+- Go 1.22 had recently come out, and it wasn't yet available in brew, so I [[https://go.dev/doc/install][downloaded it]] from the Go website.
+- I had to add this to my ~~/.zshrc~ for my shell to pick up the installation ([[https://stackoverflow.com/a/57217841/993769][source]]):
+  #+begin_src zsh
+export GOPATH=$HOME/go
+export GOROOT=/usr/local/go
+export GOBIN=$GOPATH/bin
+export PATH=$PATH:$GOPATH
+export PATH=$PATH:$GOROOT/bin
+export PATH=$PATH:$GOPATH/bin
+  #+end_src
+
+*** Emacs setup
+In the last couple of years the Emacs LSP integration has got good enough that, other things being equal, I prefer it when I'm setting up a new language since it provides a similar out-of-the-box experience to what I'm used to, without  much extra configuration.
+
+- A quick search for recent Go+Emacs setup suggestions didn't yield a definite choice, but I did see a few people using [[https://github.com/dominikh/go-mode.el][go-mode]] together with LSP, so I went with that.
+- ~go install golang.org/x/tools/gopls@latest~ to install [[https://github.com/golang/tools/tree/master/gopls][gopls]], the Go server the lsp-mode expects.
+- ~go install honnef.co/go/tools/cmd/staticcheck@latest~ for the [[https://staticcheck.dev/][staticcheck linter]].
+
+This is what my Emacs config looks like:
+#+begin_src elisp
+(require 'lsp-mode)
+(require 'go-mode)
+
+(add-hook 'go-mode-hook 'lsp-deferred)
+(add-hook 'go-mode-hook 'subword-mode)
+(add-hook 'before-save-hook 'gofmt-before-save)
+
+(add-hook 'go-mode-hook (lambda ()
+                          (setq tab-width 4)
+                          (flycheck-add-next-checker 'lsp 'go-vet)
+                          (flycheck-add-next-checker 'lsp 'go-staticcheck)))
+#+end_src
+
+The only issues I've found so far:
+
+- ~lsp-describe-thing-at-point~ does give me function documentation, but only the first sentence, not the entire paragraph. I end up using ~xref-find-definitions~ and read directly from the doc comment in the code.
+- flycheck's ~next-error~ doesn't seem to work consistently in my Go setup as it does in other languages.
+
+*** GitHub setup
+
+- I started with a default GitHub Actions [[https://github.com/facundoolano/jorge/blob/adb17ad9d2cb1e9929e9f9066941ccf3ac13222a/.github/workflows/test.yml][workflow to run unit tests]], which I extended to also run linters.
+- I eventually wrote [[https://github.com/facundoolano/jorge/blob/adb17ad9d2cb1e9929e9f9066941ccf3ac13222a/.github/workflows/release.yml][another workflow]] to draft a release and compile binaries for different platforms when I push a git tag.
+
+*** Go documentation
+I had read [[https://www.openmymind.net/The-Little-Go-Book/][/The Little Go Book/]] a few years ago, and while I didn't do anything with what I read there and thus forgot most of it, I did remember that there wasn't anything surprising or complicated enough to require dedicated training before attempting to use the language.
+
+This time I took a look a Go's [[https://go.dev/learn/][learn]] and [[https://go.dev/doc/][docs]] pages, but they didn't point me in a single obvious direction. There was the [[https://go.dev/doc/effective_go][/Effective Go/ book]], which sounded like the kind of resource I tend to favor: text form, not very long, by the language authors. But it started with a note saying it was written in 2009 and hadn't been updated since, which made it unappealing for my short-term goals. I may revisit it eventually, though, since I understand it was the canonical learning resource for many years and a good showcase of Go's idiosyncrasy.
+
+I turned to the official tutorials, but after the first /hello world/ they got into the weeds of modules and workspaces, without enough context for them to be useful starter resources. (In fact, they side-tracked me to read more about [[https://go.dev/doc/modules/managing-source][modules]] and [[https://go.dev/doc/modules/layout][project layout]], to try to understand how Go compares to other languages on those fronts).
+
+What ended up working for me was just trying to implement my project's basic features, starting from the /hello world/ program, looking up what I didn't know in [[https://gobyexample.com/][/Go by Example/]] (which had at least preliminary answers for most of my questions), then jumping to the [[https://pkg.go.dev/][package documentation]] for details. I'm sure I missed out on language features and idioms, but it was amazing to start making steady progress just a day after first installing Go.
+
+I took note of some resources I could go back to, to dive deeper into the language once project development winds down:
+
+- Read each [[https://gobyexample.com/][/Go by Example/]] entry.
+- Take another look at [[https://go.dev/doc/effective_go][/Effective Go/]].
+- Read the [[https://golang50shad.es/][/50 Shades of Go/]].
+- Consider reading the /100 Go Mistakes/ [[https://100go.co/book/][book]] or its [[https://100go.co/][online summary]].
+- Consider skimming through the [[https://go.dev/ref/spec][language specification]].
+
+I will elaborate on my first impressions of the language in a later post.