Go Learning Environment

An interactive CLI application for learning Go programming concepts through hands-on practice. This project provides a structured learning experience with explanations, examples, and coding challenges.

✨ Features

• Interactive Learning: Step through Go concepts with guided explanations
• Hands-on Practice: Solve real coding problems in your editor
• AI-Powered Explanations: Optional AI-generated comprehensive explanations using Google Gemini
• Progressive Difficulty: 16 lessons covering fundamentals to advanced topics
• Immediate Feedback: Built-in testing for your solutions

📚 What You'll Learn

• Variables and Types
• Slices and Arrays
• Functions and Methods
• Structs and Interfaces
• Pointers and Memory Management
• Packages and Modules
• Control Flow (if/else, loops, switch)
• Data Structures (maps, custom types)
• Error Handling
• Concurrency (goroutines, channels)
• Generics
• Context and Cancellation
• Structured Logging
• JSON Processing
• Testing and Benchmarking

🚀 Quick Start

Prerequisites

• Go 1.25+ installed and available on your PATH
• Text Editor (VS Code, GoLand, Vim, etc.)

Installation

# Clone the repository
git clone https://github.com/yourusername/go-learn.git
cd go-learn

# Run the application
go run ./cmd

Optional: AI-Generated Explanations

Enhance your learning experience with AI-powered explanations:

1. Get a Google Gemini API key from Google AI Studio
2. Set the environment variable:

   export GEMINI_API_KEY="your-api-key-here"

3. Restart the application

Features:

• Comprehensive explanations with practical examples
• Real-time content generation
• Automatic fallback to static explanations if AI is unavailable
• Beginner-friendly content tailored for Go learners

🎯 How It Works

1. Choose a Topic: Select from 16 available lessons
2. Learn: Read explanations and study examples
3. Practice: Solve coding challenges in your editor
4. Test: Run automated tests to verify your solutions
5. Repeat: Continue with the next topic

Example Session

--- 🚀 Go Learning Environment 🚀 ---
Choose a topic to learn, or type 'q' to quit:
1. Variables and Types
2. Slices
...
> 1

--- Topic: Variables and Types ---
1. Explain 🧠
2. Show Example ✨
3. Solve Problem 💻
b. Back to main menu
> 1

--- AI-Generated Explanation ---
[Comprehensive explanation with examples and best practices]

🏗️ Project Structure

go-learn/
├── cmd/
│   └── main.go                 # CLI entry point
├── internal/
│   ├── lessons/
│   │   ├── lessons.go          # Lesson registry and runner
│   │   ├── 1_variables_lesson.go
│   │   ├── 2_slices_lesson.go
│   │   └── ...                 # Individual lesson files
│   └── problems/
│       ├── 1_variables.go
│       ├── 2_slices.go
│       └── ...                 # Practice problem files
├── go.mod
├── go.sum
├── README.md
├── CONTRIBUTING.md
└── LICENSE

Adding New Lessons

See CONTRIBUTING.md for detailed instructions on adding new lessons.

🛠️ Development

Building

# Build only the CLI (recommended)
go build -o go-learn ./cmd

# Build the entire workspace
go build ./...

Running Tests (Enventual upgrade)

# Test the entire project
go test ./...

# Test specific packages
go test ./internal/lessons

🏗️ Building for Multiple Platforms

Go makes it easy to cross-compile for different operating systems and architectures. Here are the commands to build binaries for Windows, Linux, and macOS:

Build Scripts

For convenience, we've included build scripts for different platforms:

Linux/macOS:

# Make the script executable and run it
chmod +x build.sh
./build.sh

Windows:

# Run the PowerShell script
.\build.ps1

# Or with options
.\build.ps1 -Release  # Also create release archives
.\build.ps1 -Clean    # Clean before building

Using GNU Make on Windows

If you prefer using make commands on Windows, you can install GNU Make via winget:

# Install GNU Make
winget install ezwinports.make

# Restart your terminal/command prompt to refresh PATH
# Then use make commands normally:
make help          # Show available targets
make windows       # Build Windows binary
make linux         # Build Linux binary
make release       # Build all platforms + create archives

Build Output

After running any build script, you'll find the binaries in the bin/ directory:

bin/
├── go-learn-windows-amd64.exe    # Windows 64-bit
├── go-learn-windows-386.exe      # Windows 32-bit
├── go-learn-linux-amd64          # Linux 64-bit
├── go-learn-linux-386            # Linux 32-bit
├── go-learn-linux-arm64          # Linux ARM64
├── go-learn-darwin-amd64         # macOS Intel
└── go-learn-darwin-arm64         # macOS Apple Silicon

Build Options Summary

Method	Platforms	Use Case	Speed
go run ./cmd	Current platform only	Development	Fastest
go build ./cmd	Current platform only	Local deployment	Fast
GOOS=... go build	Single target platform	Specific deployment	Medium
./build.sh	All platforms	Distribution	Slower
make release	All platforms + archives	Official releases	Slowest

🤝 Contributing

We welcome contributions! Please see our Contributing Guide for details on:

• Adding new lessons
• Improving existing content
• Reporting bugs
• Feature requests
• Code style guidelines

📄 License

This project is licensed under the MIT License - see the LICENSE file for details.

🙏 Acknowledgments

• Built with ❤️ for the Go community
• Inspired by interactive learning platforms
• Powered by Google Gemini for AI explanations

📢 Roadmap

• Add testing and proper coverage
• Additional Go lessons eventually
• Update Gemini to pull docs link for fully accurate data
• Make problems solvable in the cli
• 🤷 Who knows what else, may not even make it to these items this was a random idea that turned out pretty fun

---

Happy Learning! 🎉

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