From f2d52519e1fad35566afb46ef521934cf0f5e5fd Mon Sep 17 00:00:00 2001
From: griesemer <gri@golang.org>
Date: Wed, 25 Oct 2017 11:26:02 -0700
Subject: [PATCH] spec: match syntax for method expressions with
 implementations

A method expression is of the form T.m where T is a type and m
is a method of that type. The spec restricted T essentially to
a type name. Both cmd/compile and go/types accepted any type
syntactically, and a method expression was really just a form
of a selector expression x.f where x denotes a type.

This CL removes the spec syntax restriction from MethodExpr
to match the actual implementation. It also moves MethodExpr
from Operand to PrimaryExpr, because that's what it is.

It still keeps the separate notion of MethodExpr even though
it looks just like a selector expresion, since a MethodExpr
must start with a type rather than a value, and the spec's
syntax expresses this bit of semantics via distinct productions
(e.g., conversions look like calls but also must start with
a type).

Fixes #9060.

Change-Id: Idd84655b5b4f85d7ee53ebf749f73f0414a05f4a
Reviewed-on: https://go-review.googlesource.com/73233
Reviewed-by: Matthew Dempsky <mdempsky@google.com>
Reviewed-by: Russ Cox <rsc@golang.org>
Reviewed-by: Ian Lance Taylor <iant@golang.org>
---
 doc/go_spec.html | 8 ++++----
 1 file changed, 4 insertions(+), 4 deletions(-)

diff --git a/doc/go_spec.html b/doc/go_spec.html
index af82931247..ebf1cefffe 100644
--- a/doc/go_spec.html
+++ b/doc/go_spec.html
@@ -1,6 +1,6 @@
 <!--{
 	"Title": "The Go Programming Language Specification",
-	"Subtitle": "Version of October 23, 2017",
+	"Subtitle": "Version of October 25, 2017",
 	"Path": "/ref/spec"
 }-->
 
@@ -2278,7 +2278,6 @@ non-<a href="#Blank_identifier">blank</a> identifier denoting a
 <a href="#Constant_declarations">constant</a>,
 <a href="#Variable_declarations">variable</a>, or
 <a href="#Function_declarations">function</a>,
-a <a href="#Method_expressions">method expression</a> yielding a function,
 or a parenthesized expression.
 </p>
 
@@ -2288,7 +2287,7 @@ operand only on the left-hand side of an <a href="#Assignments">assignment</a>.
 </p>
 
 <pre class="ebnf">
-Operand     = Literal | OperandName | MethodExpr | "(" Expression ")" .
+Operand     = Literal | OperandName | "(" Expression ")" .
 Literal     = BasicLit | CompositeLit | FunctionLit .
 BasicLit    = int_lit | float_lit | imaginary_lit | rune_lit | string_lit .
 OperandName = identifier | QualifiedIdent.
@@ -2554,6 +2553,7 @@ Primary expressions are the operands for unary and binary expressions.
 PrimaryExpr =
 	Operand |
 	Conversion |
+	MethodExpr |
 	PrimaryExpr Selector |
 	PrimaryExpr Index |
 	PrimaryExpr Slice |
@@ -2740,7 +2740,7 @@ argument that is the receiver of the method.
 
 <pre class="ebnf">
 MethodExpr    = ReceiverType "." MethodName .
-ReceiverType  = TypeName | "(" "*" TypeName ")" | "(" ReceiverType ")" .
+ReceiverType  = Type .
 </pre>
 
 <p>
-- 
2.48.1