Category Golang

Why We Should Avoid Using `else` in Programming

The else keyword is a commonly used control structure in programming. It allows us to execute a block of code if a condition is not true. However, overusing else statements can lead to less readable and maintainable code. In this article, we’ll explore why we should avoid using else clauses in our code and look at some alternatives that can make our code more concise and readable. Why Overusing else is a Bad Idea One of the main arguments against using else statements is that they can make our code more complex and harder to read.

Writing tests in Go (business apps)

There are many practices and tactics that tackle testing. Today, I’ll share with you how I write tests for my projects. Please notice that you may find it useful when starting a new project or an independent part of existing applications. You may find it difficult to apply in an already existing application. It’s not impossible but it may be challenging. Table of content General rules for tests Works out of the box Single responsible As simple as possible Irrelevant code should be extracted How does the architecture of the package look like?

Honestly about why Go sucks (or not)

Go is very opinionated. There are arguments that are based on personal preferences like “I don’t like the syntax” and much more specific. In this article, I’ll focus on the second type of arguments why Go isn’t the best language and confirm/denied them. My goal is to tell you the truth about the language. Table of content Arguments agains the language Lack of Function Overloading and Default Values for Arguments (https://www.

Top level logging

I like having the core logic of our application free of distractions like too many technical “details” like logging or generating metrics. Of course, sometimes it’s hard to avoid it. I found in many projects a situation where we put the logger very deeply inside of the code. At the end of the day, we had the logger almost everywhere. In tests, we had to provide the mocked implementation everywhere as well.

`replace` directive in go modules

Sometimes, we may want to use a library but a slightly modified version. It happens very often when we develop the library but test it in the context of an application. Go has a handy mechanism in go modules that can help us with it. To make it work, we have to clone the library somewhere near the target project and run the following command in the application’s folder. go mod edit -replace github.

gRPC with SSL/TLS

gRPC supports authentication. Adding it to your project is simple. All you have to do is configure it with just a few lines of code. One of the authentication types that gRPC supports is SSL/TLS. From the server-side, the code looks like this: creds, err := credentials.NewServerTLSFromFile(certFile, keyFile) if err != nil { // handle the error - no ignore it! } s := grpc.NewServer(grpc.Creds(creds)) The client has to update the code as shown below.

How to structure Go code?

Programs should be written for people to read, and only incidentally for machines to execute - Abelson and Sussman It is one of the most popular questions. You can find on the Internet attempts to answer this question. I’ve had concerns if I’m designing my packages or even the whole project correctly. Today, I’m not 100% sure about that! Some time ago, I had the pleasure to meet Robert Griesemer (one of Go’s authors) in person.

HTTP context livetime

Some time ago, I found a Stack Overflow question. The author had a problem with understanding why the context from the request he’s using is canceled. I remember that I had a similar situation in the past: I used the context from the HTTP request and tried to use it in background operation and return the response to the user before it was finished. This issue comes from not understanding how the context is used in the http.

Wrapping commands in Go

You can find a lot of articles about Go that describe general aspects of it. Including the content on this blog. Today, I decided to prepare something different. I’ll tell you about one of my tasks and I’ll show you how I resolved it using Go. I thought it’d be useful to show the exec package and to tell a bit about the ssh command and learn AWS EE2 a bit better.

Writing custom linter in Go

Writing linters is simple. I was surprised how it’s easy to write a Go linter. Today, we’ll write a linter that will calculate the cyclomatic complexity of the Go code. What is cyclomatic complexity? Cyclomatic complexity is a software metric used to indicate the complexity of a program. ref The idea is simple - every time we find any control flow statements we increase the complexity by one. I know I oversimplified it a bit but I don’t want to overwhelm you with unnecessary details.