Katas (å½¢) are practiced in martial arts as a way to internalize the movements and techniques so they can be executed and adapted under different circumstances, without thought or hesitation. Let's try the same with Go code.
I've been learning to program in Go. I work in the sysadmin/devops and security areas so I don't normally get to program every day. But I still want to keep my coding skills fresh. Maybe even improve them. I use gokatas as one of the ways to achieve this.
The approach is pretty low-tech. Go katas is basically a list of packages and commands (package main) that you should understand and then be rewriting from scratch or partially. There's a command to show katas and your progress:
$ go run cmd/katas.go -c 2
Kata Last done Done Level Topics
---- --------- ---- ----- ------
boring/boring 0 days ago 4x beginner concurrency, design
boring/channel 0 days ago 6x beginner goroutines, channels
areader 3 days ago 7x beginner interfaces, io.Reader
---- ----
3 17
It's important to practice regularly because repetition creates habits, and habits are what enable mastery. Set a goal that you can meet, e.g. 45 minutes every day before work. Start by taking baby steps. At first it's fine even if you only read through one of the beginner level katas.
After enough time it will require much less will power to practice. Your programming moves will start looking simpler and smoother. If you feel comfortable enough with a kata, stop practicing it (for some time) and pick up one that interests you and is slightly beyond your current ability.
-
Fork and then clone the repo:
git clone git@github.com:<you>/gokatas.git. -
Start practicing:
cd gokatas
> katas.md # if you are not me :-)
go doc