Setting up the Go programming environment is the first step to start coding in Go. This guide will walk you through the process of installing Go on your system, setting up your workspace, and verifying the installation.

1. Visit the official Go website: https://golang.org/dl/
2. Download the installer for your operating system (Windows, macOS, or Linux).

Windows

1. Run the downloaded MSI installer.
2. Follow the prompts in the installer to complete the installation.
3. By default, Go will be installed in C:\Go.

macOS

1. Open the downloaded .pkg file.
2. Follow the prompts in the installer to complete the installation.
3. By default, Go will be installed in /usr/local/go.

Linux

1. Open a terminal.
2. Extract the downloaded tarball to /usr/local using the following command:

   tar -C /usr/local -xzf go1.XX.X.linux-amd64.tar.gz
   

   Replace go1.XX.X.linux-amd64.tar.gz with the name of the downloaded file.

Windows

1. Open the Start Search, type in "env", and select "Edit the system environment variables".
2. In the System Properties window, click on the "Environment Variables" button.
3. In the Environment Variables window, find the Path variable in the "System variables" section, and click "Edit".
4. Click "New" and add the path to the Go binary (C:\Go\bin).
5. Click "OK" to close all windows.

macOS and Linux

1. Open a terminal.
2. Add the following lines to your shell profile file (~/.bashrc, ~/.zshrc, etc.):

   export PATH=$PATH:/usr/local/go/bin
   

3. Apply the changes by running:

   source ~/.bashrc
   

   or

   source ~/.zshrc
   

1. Create a directory for your Go workspace. By convention, this is usually ~/go:

   mkdir ~/go
   

2. Set the GOPATH environment variable to point to your workspace:

   export GOPATH=~/go
   

3. Add the workspace's bin directory to your PATH:

   export PATH=$PATH:$GOPATH/bin
   

1. Open a terminal or command prompt.

2. Run the following command to check the Go version:

   go version
   

   You should see output similar to:

   go version go1.XX.X <os>/<arch>
   

3. Create a simple Go program to verify the setup:

   mkdir -p $GOPATH/src/hello
   cd $GOPATH/src/hello
   

   Create a file named hello.go with the following content:

   package main
   
   import "fmt"
   
   func main() {
       fmt.Println("Hello, World!")
   }
   

4. Build and run the program:

   go run hello.go
   

   You should see the output:

   Hello, World!
   

Congratulations! You have successfully set up your Go programming environment. You are now ready to start writing and running Go programs. In the next section, we will write our first Go program and explore the basic syntax and structure of Go.