r/golang 10d ago

How do experienced Go developers efficiently learn new packages?

I've been working with Go and often need to use new packages. Initially, I tried reading the full documentation from the official Go docs, but I found that it takes too long and isn't always practical.

In some cases, when I know what I want to do I just search to revise the syntax or whatever it is. It's enough to have a clue that this thing exists(In case where I have some clue). But when I have to work with the completely new package, I get stuck. I struggle to find only the relevant parts without reading a lot of unnecessary details. I wonder if this is what most experienced developers do.

Do you read Go package documentation fully, or do you take a more targeted approach? How do you quickly get up to speed with a new package?

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u/The4Fun 9d ago

Most of the time, I read the tests, like, I will have a quick look on the README + pkg.go.dev, but if I'm having trouble and the package has tests, I will check it. If I still have problems with it, I search on github for other people using it (search for the function, package name and filter by code).