Here Are the Six Best Golang IDE Editors

A Golang IDE, or Integrated Development Environment, is software designed to help Go programmers be more productive and efficient. To achieve these outcomes, an IDE covers many ways to write code for a computer program, such as editing, compiling, and debugging code, into a single application. There are many Golang IDEs to choose from, and knowing which one is right for you can help streamline your software development life cycle.

What is Golang?

Golang, short for Go Programming Language, was developed by Google in 2007 and released open source on November 10, 2009.

Golang is a statically typed, compiled coding language, where type checking (the process of verifying that data is represented properly in a program) occurs at compile time. This makes it easier for programmers to know what arguments (variables) they should send to a function in order for that function to work correctly. It also assists with early error detection, as the compiler will produce an error upon receiving an incompatible argument.

At Orient Software, we are huge fans of Golang, and we mentioned it as one of the top programming languages of the future.

What is an IDE?

An IDE is a software that combines multiple programming tools into a single GUI (Graphical User Interface). Such tools may include but are not limited to an advanced code editor, debugger, autocomplete function, executable builder, and compiler. Giving developers access to multiple tools in one application can help them produce cleaner code faster – without the hassle of manual configuration and integration.

Most IDEs support multiple programming languages, so developers can maintain multiple codebases and languages on one platform. Examples of multilanguage IDEs include Visual Studio Code, Xcode, Android Studio, and Eclipse. There are also IDEs that primarily support one programming language, such as Zend Studio (PHP) and Vim-go (GO).

What are the Six Best Golang IDE Editors?

Below is a detailed breakdown of the six best Golang IDE editors for software developers. Some of these IDEs support multiple programming languages, but they have specific features to enhance the Golang development process, such as configurable syntax code highlighting to improve search and navigation through color coding.

Vim-go

Vim-go is an open-source plugin that adds Golang support to the Vim text editor. Once installed, developers can use a wide variety of new features. These include intelligent code completion (similar to autocomplete for Word editors), advanced source analysis tools, linting your code (to catch static errors), and easy import and removal of packages.

Vim-go is also notably lightweight, capable of handling large, complex workloads while using minimal memory and delivering fast loading times.

Goland

Goland is a commercial IDE developed and distributed by JetBrains. It assists the Go development process in many ways. You can use it to assess code, suggest recommended code completions, highlight function exit points, and heaps more. It also has dead code detection for identifying and removing, if desired, inexecutable code snippets.

Golang is a commercial product and is available to purchase as a personal license (U.S. $89.00 a first year) and business license (U.S. $199.00 per user).

Visual Studio Code

Visual Studio Code is an IDE and open-source code editor developed by Microsoft. The Golang-specific extensions in Visual Studio Code include semantic syntax highlighting, hover information, symbol search, auto completions, and signature help. The signature help feature is a small pop-up that provides help for whichever function the developer is trying to incorporate into the codebase.

Also, Visual Studio Code has several hotkeys to assist with code navigation, whereby different keyboard combinations can direct developers to different code snippets, open new pop-up windows, and show all implementations when requested.

IntelliJ IDEA

IntelliJ IDEA is another popular IDE developed by JetBrains. Aside from the standard IDE features, such as code completion, code generation, syntax highlighting, inspections, and code refactoring, what makes IntelliJ IDEA stand out is indexing.

Indexing is where the IDE examines the developer’s code, creating a virtual map of proposed methods, objects, classes, and other elements related to their application. In doing this, the IDE is intimately aware of the source code’s details and can find usages and perform smart completion incredibly fast.

LiteIDE

LiteIDE is an open-source, cross-platform IDE that focuses exclusively on Go code. Available for Windows, macOS, and Linux operating systems, LiteIDE makes cross-platform collaboration easy for developers.

LiteIDE features MIME-type management for easy identification of data labels, configurable build commands for creating build specs, and a plug-in system for installing new plugins and enhancing Golang functionality. It is also ad-free and requires no registration or prior installation to use.

AWS Cloud9

AWS Cloud9 is a cloud-based IDE released by Amazon that runs in your browser. It supports multiple languages like Python, PHP, JavaScript, and of course, Golang. As a cloud-based IDE, developers can work and collaborate on projects at home, in the office, and on the go, wherever lies a stable internet connection.

Real-time collaboration is one of the strongest features of AWS Cloud9. Developers can share their development environment, work together simultaneously, and even chat with one another inside the IDE. Any developers making changes to the code will have their names appear, making it easy to track and monitor changes.

Choosing the Right Golang IDE

Hopefully, this breakdown of the six best Golang IDE editors will help you make the right choice for your project. Whichever platform you pick, it is important that the one you choose is right for your development environment, has the necessary features you need to be more productive, and is compatible with your development requirements.

Despite being a relatively young programming language, Golang has become increasingly popular over the years, with the latest research from JetBrains indicating around 1.1 million Go devs worldwide. This means more developers than ever are keen on learning Go or enhancing their Go productivity with new features, which is where the influx of more IDEs can help both parties grow and improve their skill sets.

Learn more about Orient Software’s software development services and experience with Go development and other general technologies.