From 301da04f9b394623b9e0c0d1a226c81d209c0823 Mon Sep 17 00:00:00 2001
From: Jordan Orelli <jordanorelli@gmail.com>
Date: Mon, 29 Nov 2021 02:03:53 +0000
Subject: [PATCH] what am i even doing

---
 merge/box.go |  2 +-
 ref/ref.go   | 22 ++++++++++++++++++++++
 2 files changed, 23 insertions(+), 1 deletion(-)
 create mode 100644 ref/ref.go

diff --git a/merge/box.go b/merge/box.go
index 2fa44e1..633cd88 100644
--- a/merge/box.go
+++ b/merge/box.go
@@ -27,7 +27,7 @@ func strip[X any](f func(X) error) func(interface{}) error {
 	return func(v interface{}) error {
 		vv, ok := v.(X)
 		if !ok {
-			return fmt.Errorf("unable to merge value of type %T into value of type %T: %w", v, vv, typeMismatch)
+			return fmt.Errorf("unexpected %T value, expected %T instead: %w", v, vv, typeMismatch)
 		}
 		return f(vv)
 	}
diff --git a/ref/ref.go b/ref/ref.go
new file mode 100644
index 0000000..9aa11af
--- /dev/null
+++ b/ref/ref.go
@@ -0,0 +1,22 @@
+package ref
+
+import (
+	"fmt"
+)
+
+// New creates a reference for a given pointer
+func New[T any](v *T) Ref[T] {
+	if v == nil {
+		var zero T
+		return Ref[T]{ptr: &zero}
+	}
+	return Ref[T]{ptr: v}
+}
+
+// Ref is a read reference to some value T
+type Ref[T any] struct { ptr *T }
+
+// Val reads the value for this reference
+func (r Ref[T]) Val() T { return *r.ptr }
+
+func (r Ref[T]) String() string { return fmt.Sprintf("ref{%s}", *r.ptr) }