This is why the Lord invented exceptions, which it seems that Go does not use. This one example is enough to convince me to never use Go for anything. What a huge step backwards.
Most of the time when error checking, returns (or in C, gotos) are fine and lead to more readable code that's easy to make sense of and easy to step through with a debugger.
Please don't fall into the trap of believing that I am
terribly dogmatic about [the go to statement]. I have the
uncomfortable feeling that others are making a religion
out of it, as if the conceptual problems of programming
could be solved by a simple trick, by a simple form of
coding discipline!
That's a good thing.
> and is far less maintainable
I'd say it's more maintainable.
> you at least have a chance of maintaining a single exit point in your function
Maintaining a single exit point is IMHO an anti-pattern; it makes ugly unmaintainable deeply nested code.
There is nothing wrong with multiple exit points as long as:
a. the language has a mechanism for scoped resource allocation (ie. defer, finally, with, unwind-protect or "RAII")
b. the early exit doesn't happen in the middle of a long and complex function
Just being pedantic here. RAII is more specific than the defer statement that Go offers. Strictly speaking, defer is not RAII.