Chapter 1.1: What Is GLang?

GLang is a dynamically-typed, interpreted, high-level programming language. This means when you create a variable, object, or item in the language, you don't have to give it a type (GLang does this for you!)

When a language is interpreted, it essentially means the language is run through line-by-line to build an output. You can think of an interpreter as a magnifying glass that studies your program as you run it.

Examples of interpreted languages include Python, JavaScript, and Ruby

GLang is focused on being as close as possible to human language without the complexity of memory management. Most programming languages (e.g. C or C++) leave the programmer up to controlling the computer's memory. We commonly refer to these languages as "low level", because they talk directly to your computer's hardware. GLang is instead a high-level language, it manages all the memory for you!

Terms You Should Know

This book references many popular computer science terms you should familiarize yourself with, such as:

• Memory: Read and write-able memory, most commonly known as your computer's RAM
• Stack vs Heap: Memory regions that are reserved for different uses, where the stack is fixed in size and the heap is flexible
• Types: Ways to represent real-world objects in programming (similar to how text is commonly known as a "string" type)
• Collections: Infinitely growable "storage containers" to represent diverse data structures
• Keywords: Words that are reserved for the language itself, preventing the use of keyword-named variable names