Installing environment for GO programing language

I would like to start programming in GO. As I am a Windows user, I understand that it possible to do so using the GO plugin for NetBeans.

Until now, I have written GO programs in text files and run them using the command prompt, but I prefer to use another platform/environment so I would be able to debug the programs.

The code examples in this forum are syntax highlighting and seem to be taken from an environment like Visual Studio. Does anyone know about the environment?

I would appreciate a simple solution. Thank you!

IDEs built specifically for Go and still actively maintained:

• LiteIDE: http://code.google.com/p/golangide/
  Portable and fast with build in debugger

• GoWorks: http://tunnelvisionlabs.com/products/demo/goworks
  Based on NetBeans 7.3, standalone application or NetBeans plugin

Googling you can find several IDE, for instance:
http://go-ide.com/ or
https://code.google.com/p/goclipse/

You may find this question gets closed as it's quite subjective, and a FAQ. However, the simple answer: from your description, it seems likely that you would be comfortable with goclipse.

More complete answer: there is no "one true environment" for Go development. The code examples you see here are coloured using Stack Overflow's syntax highlighter, and were submitted in plain text. You'll probably find highlighting and utilities available for most major editors. For example, I use Vim which has a plugin to run gofmt on the current buffer.

I believe some Windows users are fond of Sublime Text 2's GoSublime plugin. A more complete list of development tools can be found here.

You don't really need an IDE to develop using Go. I'd encourage you to spend more time working with a good editor and the command line. Getting to know the tools already distributed with the language is essential IMHO (go, godoc, gofmt). See also Debugging Go Code with GDB.