Building Modern CLI Applications in Go: Develop next-level CLIs to improve user experience, increase platform usage, and maximize production

by Marian Montagnino (Author), William Kennedy (Foreword) 

Evolve the humble CLI using Go and unleash the next generation of powerful, flexible, and empathy-driven interfaces

Key Features

• Discover how Go enables the development of elegant and intuitive CLIs
• Explore a range of CLI development aspects and pick up a vast array of best practices
• Create engaging and user-friendly interfaces and learn how to distribute them

Book Description

Although graphical user interfaces (GUIs) are intuitive and user-friendly, nothing beats a command-line interface (CLI) when it comes to productivity. Many organizations settle for a GUI without searching for alternatives that offer better accessibility and functionality. If this describes your organization, then pick up this book and get them to rethink that decision.

Building Modern CLI Applications in Go will help you achieve an interface that rivals a GUI in elegance yet surpasses it in high-performance execution. Through its practical, step-by-step approach, you'll learn everything you need to harness the power and simplicity of the Go language to build CLI applications that revolutionize the way you work.

After a primer on CLI standards and Go, you'll be launched into tool design and proper framework use for true development proficiency. The book then moves on to all things CLI, helping you master everything from arguments and flags to errors and API calls. Later, you'll dive into the nuances of empathic development so that you can ensure the best UX possible, before you finish up with build tags, cross-compilation, and container-based distribution.

By the end of this UX book, you'll be fully equipped to take the performance and flexibility of your organization's applications to the next level.

What you will learn

• Master the Go code structure, testing, and other essentials
• Add a colorful dashboard to your CLI using engaging ASCII banners
• Use Cobra, Viper, and other frameworks to give your CLI an edge
• Handle inputs, API commands, errors, and timeouts like a pro
• Target builds for specific platforms the right way using build tags
• Build with empathy, using easy bug submission and traceback
• Containerize, distribute, and publish your CLIs quickly and easily

Who this book is for

This book is for beginner- and intermediate-level Golang developers who take an interest in developing CLIs and enjoy learning by doing. You'll need an understanding of basic Golang programming concepts, but will require no prior knowledge of CLI design and development. This book helps you join a community of CLI developers and distribute within the popular Homebrew package management tool.

Table of Contents

1. Understanding CLI Standards
2. Structuring Go Code for CLI Applications
3. Design your tool and its purpose
4. Popular frameworks in Go to speed up and enhance CLI development
5. Processing Different Types of Input via Arguments and Flags
6. Calling External Processes and API commands and Handle Timeouts, and Error Handling
7. Developing for Different Platforms
8. Being Clear, Concise and Consistent with CLIs
9. Empathic Side of Development
10. Interactivity with Prompts and Terminal Dashboards
11. Customizing Go Binaries with Build Tags
12. Cross Compilation Across Different Platforms
13. Using Containers for Distribution
14. Publish your Go binary as a Homebrew Formula with GoReleaser