From 7cb69730545e4ba9295f5c8ac2dfbff18de053c1 Mon Sep 17 00:00:00 2001
From: Rob Pike <r@golang.org>
Date: Mon, 14 Jun 2010 12:27:22 -0700
Subject: tutorial: update discussion of variadic functions

R=rsc
CC=golang-dev
http://codereview.appspot.com/1677042
---
 doc/go_tutorial.html | 21 +++++++++++++--------
 1 file changed, 13 insertions(+), 8 deletions(-)

(limited to 'doc/go_tutorial.html')

diff --git a/doc/go_tutorial.html b/doc/go_tutorial.html
index 40fef3069..7eb09b5b4 100644
--- a/doc/go_tutorial.html
+++ b/doc/go_tutorial.html
@@ -938,14 +938,19 @@ implements <code>Printf</code>, <code>Fprintf</code>, and so on.
 Within the <code>fmt</code> package, <code>Printf</code> is declared with this signature:
 <p>
 <pre>
-    Printf(format string, v ...) (n int, errno os.Error)
-</pre>
-<p>
-That <code>...</code> represents the variadic argument list that in C would
-be handled using the <code>stdarg.h</code> macros but in Go is passed using
-an empty interface variable (<code>interface {}</code>) and then unpacked
-using the reflection library.  It's off topic here but the use of
-reflection helps explain some of the nice properties of Go's <code>Printf</code>,
+    Printf(format string, v ...interface{}) (n int, errno os.Error)
+</pre>
+<p>
+The token <code>...</code> introduces a variable-length argument list that in C would
+be handled using the <code>stdarg.h</code> macros.
+In Go, variadic functions are passed a slice of the arguments of the
+specified type.  In <code>Printf</code>'s case, the declaration says <code>...interface{}</code>
+so the actual type is a slice of empty interface values, <code>[]interface{}</code>.
+<code>Printf</code> can examine the arguments by iterating over the slice
+and, for each element, using a type switch or the reflection library
+to interpret the value.
+It's off topic here but such run-time type analysis
+helps explain some of the nice properties of Go's <code>Printf</code>,
 due to the ability of <code>Printf</code> to discover the type of its arguments
 dynamically.
 <p>
-- 
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