On Saturday, July 2, 2016 at 6:19:56 AM UTC+2, Matt Harden wrote: > > Conceptually, the value of a string is the sequence of bytes it contains, > just like an array of bytes. It doesn't matter that the implementation of > strings looks more like a slice internally. On the other hand the value of > a slice is a reference to (part of) an underlying array, together with a > length. In all cases == should compare values. >
It does(*). But for a slice, it "also" compares the location of those values. That's the difference between a slice and an array. (*) : well, or rather, it probably should . > I agree that it would be confusing to make == work for slices, because > many people, myself included would intuitively want that to compare the > contents of the slice (values from the underlying array) rather than the > value of the slice itself which is essentially 3 pointers. > > That's just a matter of realizing what a slice really is. I think It's more of a documentation issue to clear up the misconception. That should not impede the language from being improved. > One nice feature of the current gc compiler AIUI is that it will avoid a > copy in some circumstances when you convert a byte slice to a string and > immediately use it as a map key. This helps with using []byte values to > index into maps, but doesn't help when the []byte is part of a larger > structure you want to use as a key. > > On Fri, Jul 1, 2016 at 7:05 AM Chad <send...@gmail.com <javascript:>> > wrote: > >> >> >> On Friday, July 1, 2016 at 4:01:54 PM UTC+2, Chad wrote: >> >>> >>> >>> On Friday, July 1, 2016 at 3:44:10 PM UTC+2, Martin Geisler wrote: >>>> >>>> On Fri, Jul 1, 2016 at 12:52 PM, Chad <send...@gmail.com> wrote: >>>> > However, that it's a valid point you raise (re strings) >>>> > But that's exactly the reason for which, someone would probably ask >>>> whether >>>> > a string is a reference type or a value type. >>>> > >>>> > This could probably made clearer in the documentation. >>>> >>>> I keep seeing references (hah!) to this concept of a "reference type" >>>> :-) However, I just tried searching the language spec and Effective Go >>>> and there doesn't seem to be such a concept defined in those >>>> documents. >>> >>> >>> I think it should. It is mentioned here however >>> https://blog.golang.org/go-maps-in-action >>> >>> Without that, one of the first instinct of beginning programmers is >>> often to create pointers to slices ** *or maps *** >>> >> >> (And I should know, I did that :) >> >> >>> >>>> -- >> You received this message because you are subscribed to the Google Groups >> "golang-nuts" group. >> To unsubscribe from this group and stop receiving emails from it, send an >> email to golang-nuts...@googlegroups.com <javascript:>. >> For more options, visit https://groups.google.com/d/optout. >> > -- You received this message because you are subscribed to the Google Groups "golang-nuts" group. To unsubscribe from this group and stop receiving emails from it, send an email to golang-nuts+unsubscr...@googlegroups.com. For more options, visit https://groups.google.com/d/optout.
