LCTHW Newsletter #7: Go is One of The Languages of All Time

You can read this email at:

https://learncodethehardway.com/emails/17-lcthw-weekly-update-7/

No, That's Not a Go Typo

When I said that "Go Lang is One of the Languages of All Time" you may have thought, "It's not that great...oh wait...where's the 'greatest'?" That's right, I didn't say Go is one of the greatest languages of all time, it's just one of them. It's a programming language, it exists, it has advantages, and disadvantages, and that's about all you can really say about it. It's boring, unassuming, capable, and mostly just fine. If Go Lang were a comic strip it'd be one with a dog in a flaming building saying, "This is fine" but the room isn't on fire. It's just a room, and that's Go Lang. Not amazing, not bad, just fine.

This is the theme of this Newsletter. Go is just fine, and here's some pieces of information for those of you interested in Go. If you have some suggestions for other Go resources and information, then hit reply and let me know your thoughts.

An Efficient Go Study Guide

Go's documentation is very complete, and also completely disorganized. Everything's there--tutorials, specifications, API references, and topic guides--but it's all in the wrong place and in the wrong order. You'll read 20 documents about modules before you learn what a for-loop is, and setup a multi-module monorepo before you know how to make a package subdirectory in your own project. To fix this I'm creating a better organized study guide that changes the default ordering into something more logical. It's not perfect because I can't change their documentation but it's better than the current default.

Read "An Efficient Go Study Guide"

I'm Making a Twitch Support Webapp

As I do more Twitch streaming I find there's a bunch of things I'd like to have from Twitch's services. To learn more advanced Go I'm making a website with various features to support chat. Right now I have a basic ugly layout, and a way for chat to submit links on a stream. This will eventually turn into a catalog of my streams and links that were mentioned in chat or on the site for later research. Feel free to take a look at the project and any feedback welcome.

zedshaw.games Go Webapp

My Twitch Idea is Working

When I started doing Twitch seriously this year I had one idea, "Make a stream that other programmers can watch while they work." To do that I removed all the pop-up, loud noises, memes, and other distractions. I play relaxing music with no lyrics, and I try to keep my discussion on the "Bob Ross" side of things (except when I'm using CSS). I also wanted to go out of my way to help people who have questions by dropping them useful links or ideas to get them going.

So far the theme is working, both for me and for the people who come to watch. For me this has been a great way to get myself into "work mode" every day. Working from home makes it tough to get up and work because I have no external obligations. Setting a schedule of 10AM and 10PM (EST) every day means I feel obligated to get up and "go to work." I don't know, I guess I've been working for someone else my whole life so my brain is probably wired that way permanently.

As for the people in my chat, it does seem they get the theme and this is how they use my streams. Just a relaxing stream with some Jazz, the sounds of a keyboard, and me talking about what I'm doing. If you're struggling to get motivated to work, need something to distract you, or want some advice, come check hang out with me 10AM/10PM EST every day at Twitch.tv/zedashaw.

Other Fun Links

AsmJit

If you've wanted to make a scripting language then this library might be a good fit. It's a C++ library that provides JIT (Just-in-Time) assembly language in a nice API.

Gateware

This is an open source C++ single header only for cross platform 2D/3D graphics and input system. It's a 3.9MB "header only" library, but if you're looking for something for C++ that's not SDL3 again then check it out. Documentation is also fairly decent.

Build an 8bit Computer

Ever wanted to build a computer by hand? Here's a project that teaches you how to do it and also provides parts to speed it up.

e-Ink Trmnl

This is a really slick little device. It's a fairly cheap tablet with an e-Ink display that you can code using browser tech (html, Liquid Templates, etc.) and Open Source. It also has many self-hosting options and community made apps. NOTE: I haven't bought one yet, but it looks like it might be something you may want.

An Online Vim

Making a programming website? Here's an implementation of Vim that runs in the browser.

Handprint: Perspective

Feel like learning way more about perspective than you ever learned before? This series on "Handprint" covers many aspects of perspective that's mostly glossed over in illustration textbooks. For example, did you know an elipse in 3D perspective is never perfect?

See You Next Week

If you want to watch me make cool things with code, draw, paint, and relax listening to Jazz, then come watch my Twitch.tv.

More emails we've sent.