What is the correct way to install Google Go and App Engine SDK?

Question

I've been playing with Go and GAE using GoClipse for a bit now on my Mac (since they won't run on Windows). Recently I noticed that when I goinstall a package from github it had some problems working. I figured I'd reinstall the whole thing and set it up properly. Go installed nicely, but when it came to integrating the GAE SDK it took me a couple hours of searching and came up with only this article: http://code.google.com/p/goclipse/wiki/GoClipseAndTheGoogleAppEngine But since it tell you to move files from the go/scr folder (where goinstall installs packages), I reckon it is not the correct way to set everything up.

Can anyone give me a clear, easy to follow step-by-step guide on how to install both Go and GAE SDK on a Mac?

Answer 1

The short answer is that Go and the GAE SDK do not integrate in the way that (I think) you are looking for. The GAE SDK includes its own version of the Go toolchain that differs in some important ways to the standard tools. Those differences are deep enough that it is unlikely you will derive much utility from trying to unify the two. Here are the big differences:

• GAE does not support some packages from the standard lib e.g. "unsafe"
• GAE does not support CGO
• GAE often lags the main distribution by one or more major versions
• You cannot use any binary libraries (go or otherwise) in a GAE project (you need source for everything)
• goinstall is not intended for use with GAE projects

Because of this I treat my GAE and non-GAE tools as completely separate. If you're only doing GAE development, you could do without the standard tools altogether.