In today's chapter, we will explore how Go handles backward compatibility through its unique features, such as interfaces and type systems. Go, unlike traditional Object-Oriented Programming (OOP) languages, does not directly support classes or inheritance, but it offers powerful ways to achieve similar goals, especially in the context of maintaining backward compatibility while evolving software.

Go emphasizes composition over inheritance and utilizes interfaces and type systems to achieve flexibility and extensibility in software design. An interface in Go is a type that specifies a method set, and any type that implements these methods satisfies the interface.

To illustrate, let’s consider an example that showcases using interfaces to achieve flexibility:

By using interfaces, Go achieves backward compatibility because it allows new types to be added without modifying existing codebases. This strategy is particularly effective when adding new functionalities.

Here is an example using functions to illustrate backward compatibility: