code review 87410043: doc/effective_go: mention that b.Write is a shorthand f...

doc/effective_go.html

 <!--{
         "Title": "Effective Go",
         "Template": true
 }-->
 
 <h2 id="introduction">Introduction</h2>
 
 <p>
 Go is a new language.  Although it borrows ideas from
 existing languages,
@@ skipping 2038 matching lines @@
 </p>
 <pre>
     var b ByteSlice
     fmt.Fprintf(&amp;b, "This hour has %d days\n", 7)
 </pre>
 <p>
 We pass the address of a <code>ByteSlice</code>
 because only <code>*ByteSlice</code> satisfies <code>io.Writer</code>.
 The rule about pointers vs. values for receivers is that value methods
 can be invoked on pointers and values, but pointer methods can only be
-invoked on pointers.  This is because pointer methods can modify the
-receiver; invoking them on a copy of the value would cause those
-modifications to be discarded.
+invoked on pointers.
 </p>
+
+<p>
+This rule arises because pointer methods can modify the receiver; invoking
+them on a value would cause the method to receive a copy of the value, so
+any modifications would be discarded.  The language therefore disallows

[r, 2014/04/17 05:36:53]

move the new sentence to its own line.

+this mistake.
+There is a handy exception. When the value is addressable, the language

[r, 2014/04/17 05:36:53]

s/exception/&, though/

+takes care of the common case of invoking a pointer method on a value by
+inserting the address operator automatically.
+In our example, the variable <code>b</code> is addressable, so we can call
+its <code>Write</code> method with just <code>b.Write</code>. The compiler
+will rewrite that to <code>(&amp;b).Write</code> for us.
+</p>
+
 <p>
 By the way, the idea of using <code>Write</code> on a slice of bytes
 is central to the implementation of <code>bytes.Buffer</code>.
 </p>
 
 <h2 id="interfaces_and_types">Interfaces and other types</h2>
 
 <h3 id="interfaces">Interfaces</h3>
 <p>
 Interfaces in Go provide a way to specify the behavior of an
@@ skipping 1556 matching lines @@
 <pre>
 verifying implementation
 type Color uint32
 
 // Check that Color implements image.Color and image.Image
 var _ image.Color = Black
 var _ image.Image = Black
 </pre>
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