Go 2: Make life easier

[pjebs]

Suppose I have a variable:

Example 1:

var x *int
x = &5 // This fails.

Example 2:

var t *time.Time
t = &time.Now() // this fails

The recommended way is:

var x *int

var dummy int = 5 
x = &dummy // This works

Or

var t *time.Time

var dummy time.Time = time.Now()
t = &dummy // This works

This is annoying. Having to create dummy variables just to do this.

There is also an "apparent" inconsistency (despite following similar semantics to above):

type A struct {}

var x *A

x = &A{} // This is allowed

[pjebs]

My proposal is to provide this syntax sugar:

Example 1:

var x *int
x = &5  equivalent to  x = &[]int{5}[0]

Example 2:

var t *time.Time
t = &time.Now()  equivalent to   t = &[]time.Time{time.Now()}[0]

[pjebs]

I see this dummy variable style absolutely everywhere in goland. It is annoying.
The alternative (temporary slice) which I use everywhere is more verbose and looks revolting.

My doctor has given me a magic pill to minimise my migraines due being stuck between a rock and a hard place.

[randall77]

Dup of #9097 (and more directly of #19966, which was closed in favor of #9097). Closing as a dup.

[pjebs]

I've created https://github.com/rocketlaunchr/igo to demo how it can be used.