{"id":136,"date":"2021-01-21T20:06:18","date_gmt":"2021-01-21T20:06:18","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/kindsonthegenius.com\/go\/?p=136"},"modified":"2026-07-07T20:37:56","modified_gmt":"2026-07-07T20:37:56","slug":"go-programming-setup","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/kindsonthegenius.com\/go\/2021\/01\/21\/go-programming-setup\/","title":{"rendered":"Go Programming – Setup"},"content":{"rendered":"

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Updated July 2, 2026.<\/strong> Refreshed for Go 1.22+ and current SEO best practices.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

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Go 1.22+ Notes<\/h4>\n

Download Go 1.22+<\/strong> from go.dev\/dl<\/a>. Verify with go version<\/code>. Free alternative to GoLand: VS Code<\/strong> with the official Go extension \u2014 install Go, open your project folder, and run go run .<\/code> from the integrated terminal.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

In this tutorial, we would be able to setup Go and write our first program.<\/p>\n

In Windows<\/strong><\/p>\n

Download Go Installer package from here.<\/a> Go ahead to install it depending on your OS. This would be a .msi file. Run the downloaded file.<\/p>\n

By default the installer would install Go on your C drive at C:\\Go. This is the default workspace<\/p>\n

To check that Go installed correctly, open the command prompt and type the following command<\/p>\n

go version\r\n<\/pre>\n
The would display the version of Go installed<\/p>\n
In Mac<\/strong><\/p>\n
If\u00a0 you are using Mac, then open your terminal and install Go using the following command:<\/p>\n
brew install golang\r\n<\/pre>\n
The default install location for Mac is \/usr\/local\/go<\/p>\n
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\u00a0In Linux<\/strong><\/p>\n
Download the and extract the archive into the folder \/usr\/local. So you will have a directory \/usr\/local\/go<\/p>\n
Add the \/usr\/local\/go\/bin to the PATH. To do that you need to execute the command:<\/p>\n
export PATH=$PATH:\/usr\/local\/go\/bin\r\n<\/pre>\n
The confirm the installation using go version<\/p>\n
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Using an IDE<\/strong><\/p>\n
For me, I prefer using an IDE. In this case, the IDE for Go is the GoLand IDE developed by JetBrains. You can find it here<\/a><\/p>\n
I think you can get a 30-trial version or a free version if you are student or teacher and want to use it for learning purposes. That is what I did! Once you have installed it, open it. It open the window as shown below:<\/p>\n
\"GoLand
GoLand welcome page<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n
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Click on New Project and ensure that Go is selected in the GOROOT field as shown below.<\/p>\n
Give the project a name. In this case, the name is awesomeProject2<\/p>\n
\"GoLand
GoLand new project<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n
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Click on Create to create the Project. The new project window is opened as shown below:<\/p>\n
\"New
New project in Go<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n
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Right-click on the project name and choose New > Go File. I name it firstProg. The file extension is .go.<\/p>\n
Then enter the following code:<\/p>\n
package<\/span> main\r\n\r\nimport<\/span> \"fmt\"<\/span>\r\n\r\nfunc<\/span> main() {\r\n\tfmt.Println(\"Welcome to Go!\"<\/span>)\r\n}\r\n<\/pre>\n
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Next, right-click on the program and Choose “Run go build firstProg.go”. The program runs and displays the result in the output windows as shown below, circled in red:<\/p>\n
\"Running
Running a Go program in GoLand IDE<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n
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Next Steps<\/strong><\/h5>\n
Now that you have successfully setup Go programming IDE and run a Go program, let’s now delve into the Go Programming Tutorial proper!<\/p>\n
So on to the next part: Basic Syntax of a Go Program<\/a>.<\/p>\n
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