Promoted fields - using name when initialization struct

[Hubert Kr]

Hi,

Going back to 2013 https://groups.google.com/forum/#!topic/golang-nuts/LUF4LpXVU8g:

Can anyone give me some insight as to the design decision behind why you can't create a struct literal with direct references to embedded struct members?

Here is example how it could work: http://play.golang.org/p/XS3fiCY-BH

Has approach changed since than? Go still doesn't allow to use fields name in composite literals of the struct? Maybe it's time to change it?

Hubert Krauze

[minux]

No, it hasn't been changed since Go 1.

I think  one reason not to allow direct initialization of fields of anonymous

embedded structs is the embedded struct pointer case. It should not hide

the fact that a new struct is allocated separately.

E.g.

type PacketPtr struct {

*Header

Data      string

ExtraData string

}

var x = PacketPtr{Header: &Header{ ... }, Data: "", ExtraData: "" }

[Robert Griesemer]

This is a question that has come a few times before.

I admit that I often wished myself that I would be possible.

Minux has a good point: what to do if there are embedded pointer types?

(There's an obvious way out: it would simply be invalid to use direct reference that requires an indirection. But there's more: what if the direct reference is ambiguous? As with explicit selectors, that would also be invalid.)

In summary: It probably could be made to work w/o too much trouble; but I haven't through through all the details - and there's always details. There's also a question of readability and whether it is really worth making the language more complex.

There is always the proposal process - but as has been pointed out before: The bar for language changes is very high.

- gri

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