A summary of my experiences in rewriting the IronZebra blog from Django to Go. For the original HN front-page blog post, see http://www.ironzebra.com/code/103/i-rewrote-my-blog-in-go

1. Rewriting a blog in Go
Streamlining from Django to Go

2. My background
PHP
JavaScript
CSS
Java
C++
Python Node.js Go →

3. A bit about Go
➔ Syntax somewhere between Python and
Java
package main
import "fmt"
func main() {
fmt.Println("Hello, 世界")
}

4. A bit about Go
➔ Compiled language
➔ Statically typed, but not stupid:
var hello string = “hi there” // valid
greeting := “how are you” // also valid
➔ Good compromise between ease of
development and efficiency

5. A bit about Go
➔ Very opinionated...
$ go fmt yourcode.go
$ go get github.com/hermanschaaf/ironzebra
...and that’s a good thing

6. ➔ Learning & Fun
➔ The “Hello World” of web applications
➔ I did the same thing in Django
➔ The Django blog was reaaally sloooooow
➔ Fear of landing on HN front page (really!)
Reasons for rewriting my blog

7. What I want
➔ Markdown
➔ MongoDB
➔ Admin Login
➔ Faster load times

8. What I go get
➔ Markdown (github.com/russross/blackfriday)
➔ MongoDB (labix.org/v2/mgo)
➔ Admin Login (code.google.com/p/go.crypto/bcrypt)
➔ Faster load times (github.com/robfig/revel)

9. Markdown: blackfriday
$ go get github.com/russross/blackfriday
import "github.com/russross/blackfriday"
// markdown string
body := “Hello, _markdown_, my old *friend*.”
// parse markdown into HTML string
html := string(blackfriday.MarkdownCommon([]byte
(body)))

10. MongoDB: mgo
➔ mgo is a great wrapper for MongoDB
func getPosts(c Blog) ([]models.Post) (postList []
models.Post{}) {
collection := c.Database.C("posts")
query := bson.M{"published": true}
q := collection.Find(query).Sort("-timestamp")
q.Limit(10).Iter().All(&postList)
}

11. MongoDB: mgo
➔ ...but had some surprises:
collection.Find(
bson.M{"title": title}).One(&result)

12. Faster load times: Revel
http://www.techempower.com/benchmarks/#section=data-r5&hw=i7&test=db&o=5&f=1elc8-9fm70g-0

13. Revel
➔ MVC framework
➔ Still in pre-1.0 release
➔ Offers routing, parameter parsing, validation,
session/flash, templating, caching, job
running, testing, and even i18n

14. Revel
➔ Really nice routing:
GET / App.Index
GET /posts/ Blog.List
GET /:category/:id/:slugString Blog.Show
➔ Useful controller hooks
➔ Each http request gets separate goroutine

15. Revel
➔ Go’s built-in templates aren’t so great
[[--- show.html ---]]
{{set . "title" .result.Title}}
{{template "header.html" .}}
</head>
{{template "post.html" .}}
{{ .html_output }}

16. The Results
Time Googlebot spent downloading the HTML text only

17. BUT!!
➔ This was not a scientific experiment:
◆ Moved server to Heroku (git deploy!)
◆ Trimmed down the HTML, removed some queries
◆ Database used to be on same machine, now hosted
on Mongolab

18. Conclusions
➔ Site loading at least 10x faster
➔ Same amount of effort as Django, or less
➔ “Hello World” of web applications:
Proof of concept of what can be done when
not even trying very hard

19. I no longer fear the HN frontpage