Goodbye .csproj, Hello go.mod
Right, let’s talk about dependencies. In .NET land, we’ve got NuGet, .csproj files, PackageReference …
Series
Step Over to Go (C# You Later)
A comprehensive guide for .NET developers making the jump to Go. From basic syntax to production deployment, this series covers everything you need to make the transition.
48 posts
·
Dec 2024 – Jun 2025
Whether you’re curious about Go or ready to make the switch, this series takes you through the journey from a .NET developer’s perspective. Each post compares familiar C# concepts with their Go equivalents, helping you build on what you already know.
All Posts in Order
The Phrasebook: C# Concepts in Go Terms
Before we get into the weeds of types and patterns, let’s establish some vocabulary. Go uses different names for …
You Know .NET, Now Meet the Go Toolchain
After twenty-odd years writing C#, I’m learning Go. Not because .NET has failed me (it hasn’t) but because …
Generics: Late to the Party
Go shipped generics in version 1.18 (March 2022). C# has had them since 2.0 (November 2005). That’s a …
No Enums? No Problem (Sort Of)
Go doesn’t have enums. Not “Go has something enum-like”. It genuinely doesn’t have a dedicated …
The Million Dollar Mistake, Differently
Tony Hoare called null references his “billion dollar mistake.” Both C# and Go inherited some form of this …
Where Did My Properties Go?
Coming from C#, one of the first things you’ll notice is that Go structs look… naked. Where are the { get; …
Your Class Is Now a Struct (And That's Fine)
Here’s something that’ll feel wrong for about a week: Go doesn’t have classes. Not “Go has …
if err != nil: Your New Reality
Let’s address the elephant in the room. You’re going to write if err != nil hundreds of times. Thousands, …
Panic and Recover: The Emergency Exit
So Go doesn’t have exceptions. Except… it kind of does. They’re called panic and recover, and they …
The switch Statement You Always Wanted
C#’s switch statement has evolved a lot over the years. Pattern matching, switch expressions, when guards. …
Pointers Without the Pain
Right, let’s talk about pointers. If you’ve spent your career in C#, you’ve probably used pointers …
Slices Are Not Arrays (And Neither Is List<T>)
Every C# developer coming to Go makes the same mistake: they see []int and think “array” or …
Stack vs Heap: Go's Escape Analysis
In C#, you mostly don’t think about where variables live. Value types go on the stack (usually). Reference types …
Async/Await vs Goroutines: A Mindset Shift
Go’s concurrency model is going to feel backwards. You’ve spent years learning that async operations need …
Channels: The sync You Didn't Know You Wanted
If goroutines are Go’s lightweight threads, channels are how they talk to each other. Think …
Context Is King
Every Go function that does I/O, might take a while, or should be cancellable will take a context.Context as its first …
Mutexes and WaitGroups: When Channels Aren't the Answer
Go’s mantra is “share memory by communicating,” but sometimes you just need a bloody mutex. The sync …
select: Multiplexing Like a Pro
The select statement is where Go’s channel system goes from “neat” to “powerful.” It lets …
Composition Over Inheritance (For Real This Time)
We’ve all heard “favour composition over inheritance.” We’ve all nodded sagely. And then …
Implicit Interfaces: Scary Then Brilliant
Here’s a sentence that’ll make every C# developer uncomfortable: Go interfaces don’t require an …
The Empty Interface and Type Assertions
Go has a type called any. Before Go 1.18, it was written interface{}. Same thing, nicer name. And it’s basically …
Benchmarks and Profiling Out of the Box
Here’s something that surprised me: Go has built-in benchmarking. No BenchmarkDotNet to install. No configuration. …
Mocking in a Language Without Mockito
In C#, you reach for Moq or NSubstitute without thinking. Interface? Mock it. Verify calls? Easy. Set up return values? …
Multi-Module Repos: Monorepo Thinking
Most Go projects have one go.mod file at the root. One module, one version, simple. But what happens when your repo …
Organising a Real Project
So you’ve got the basics. You can write Go code. Now you need to organise it into something that won’t …
Testing Without a Framework
In C#, you pick a test framework: xUnit, NUnit, MSTest. You install packages. You learn attributes. You configure test …
Configuration Without IOptions<T>
In ASP.NET Core, configuration is a whole subsystem. IConfiguration, IOptions<T>, IOptionsSnapshot<T>, …
Database Access: database/sql vs Entity Framework
Entity Framework is an ORM. It maps objects to tables, generates SQL, tracks changes, handles migrations. You can build …
Debugging: Delve vs Visual Studio's Comfort
Visual Studio’s debugger is exceptional. Breakpoints, watch expressions, edit-and-continue, conditional …
Generate All the Things
Go developers love code generation. Where C# uses reflection, attributes, and source generators, Go often uses tools …
GORM and Friends: When You Do Want an ORM
Despite Go’s “just write SQL” culture, ORMs exist and are popular. GORM is the most widely used. If …
HTTP Services: net/http vs ASP.NET Core
ASP.NET Core is a sophisticated web framework. Dependency injection, middleware pipelines, model binding, routing with …
JSON: Struct Tags and the Marshal Dance
In C#, you add [JsonProperty("name")] or rely on naming conventions. The serializer figures out the rest. …
Linting and Formatting: gofmt Is Non-Negotiable
In C#, code formatting is a matter of preference. Tabs or spaces? Braces on the same line or next? Teams debate, …
Logging: slog and the Structured Logging Story
For years, Go’s logging story was “use the log package or pick a third-party library.” The standard …
AWS Lambda and Go: Cold Starts That Don't Hurt
If you’ve run .NET on Lambda, you know the cold start pain. 3-5 seconds for a managed runtime. Even Native AOT …
Dockerfile for Go: Simpler Than You'd Think
Go’s static binaries make for tiny Docker images. Where a .NET container might be 200MB+, a Go container can be …
GitHub Actions for Go Projects
CI/CD for Go projects is refreshingly simple. Fast builds, built-in testing, cross-compilation. Everything you need is …
Health Checks and Readiness Probes
We touched on health checks in the Kubernetes post. Let’s go deeper. Proper health checks that actually tell …
Kubernetes and Go: A Natural Fit
Kubernetes is written in Go. The CLI tools are Go. The ecosystem is Go. Running Go services on Kubernetes feels natural. …
Metrics, Traces, and Logs: The OpenTelemetry Way
Observability in production means three things: metrics (what’s happening), traces (how requests flow), and logs …
Shrinking Binaries and Build Tags
Go binaries are already small compared to .NET self-contained deployments. But sometimes you want smaller: Lambda …
Single Binary Deploys: The Killer Feature
What sold me on Go for production: you build a binary, you copy it to a server, you run it. No runtime to install. No …
Versioning Your Modules
Versioning in Go is simple in concept (semantic versioning with git tags) but has quirks that’ll catch you if …
What I Actually Miss From C#
I’ve been writing Go full-time for a couple of months now. I like it. I’m productive. But let’s be …
What I'll Never Go Back For
Last time I talked about what I miss from C#. Now let’s flip it: what has Go given me that I’d properly …
Six Months In: Was It Worth It?
Six months ago, I started this series with a simple goal: document learning Go as an experienced C# developer. Not a …