cmd/gc: confusing error message for a bad receiver type #3783
Description
by dmitrymaluka:
package main
var i int
//var i *int
func (p *i) f() {
}
func main() {
}
./indir.go:6: invalid indirect of i (type int)
I expect the error message to be "is not a type".
After replacing i declaration by the commented one, where i is a pointer variable (var i
*int), the error message is correct:
./indir.go:6: *i is not a type
Quoting myself
(https://groups.google.com/forum/#!msg/golang-nuts/oRTdZYmkpqg/xKtazXH44N0J):
"Ok, as far as I understand now, the compiler was dealing with the AST
node *i treating it as a pointer indirection. But why it
did that in the first place? According to
http://golang.org/ref/spec#Method_declarations there is no place for a
pointer indirection, syntactically. This behavior looks strange to me,
and the resulting error message is a bit confusing."