Girls’ Rule — And How We’ve Just Taken Over ‘Go’!

Content posted here with the permission of the author Bhuvana Prabhu, who is currently employed at Josh Software. Original post available here.

On 25th of November, I had the honour of being the host of the first ever Golang Girls. I’d like to share my experience of the whole event as to why one should look forward to next Golang Girls. Because I certainly am.

For starters — What is Golang Girls ?

It is an initiative to introduce girls to the power of Go language. Give them a platform to meet various Golang enthusiasts who share one common goal: to get stuck into Go and meet other like minded individuals. Girls do run the world! But women, ladies and even boys are allowed to attend, don’t care whether you are a beginner , intermediate or advanced.

Pioneers of Golang!

So, the first ever Golang girls took place in Pune at Josh Software (Love saying ‘first ever’ — first time is always special, right? :P). Among the 45 participants, including coaches, there were not only students but also working professionals and even a few boys! The most interesting attendee was a boy still in school, in the 8th grade! (Note to self: It’s never too early to start!).

We had teams of 4–5 attendees and had 2 coaches per team. It was lovely to see how people chose not to slip into their blankets on Sunday and rather learn something new.

Pretty Gophers aka coaches!

It all started off with a super motivating talk by Gautam Rege, a big Golang enthusiast (and also someone I look up to). He enlightened us about why Go is sky-rocketing in popularity and why we need to really dive into Go. The eagerness of audience after the talk to get Go-ing was incredible!

Then there was a session by Varsha where attendees did a deep dive on Go Playground. Getting your hands dirty with any language teaches you the nuances and magic of that language. And that’s what really happened — attendees got so engrossed that they were delaying lunch and I had to announce for * times(I don’t really remember the count) to get their attention to food!

Once the lunch was over, we all did something crazy. All of us took up Didi challenge (Mind it, it’s Didi, not Kiki challenge 😛 ). It felt a little idiotic in the beginning but trust me, the fun that it brings is BOMB!. It also took away the drowsiness after the delectable lunch.

Finally, it was time to build an app in Go. And what could be more engaging and interesting than a chat application. (Something that we can’t stop doing). The idea was simple, build a server-less terminal based chat app with Go Routines and gRPC, peer-to-peer and broadcast chat, etc. Attendees were briefed about these concepts. And then they started off with their App. Coaches were constantly around them to guide them whenever needed.

After a couple of hours of struggling with completing the TODOs in the code, guess what? EVERYONE finished the application — even the 8th grade student! It really left me in awe. To reward everyone for their excellent effort and enthusiasm, we had lovely Gopher cupcakes for them(Freakishly cute!)