the stdlib supports &= in more contexts; refs #3524

lib/pure/net.nim

@@ -895,6 +895,10 @@ proc send*(socket: Socket, data: string,
   if sent != data.len:
     raiseOSError(osLastError(), "Could not send all data.")
 
+template `&=`*(socket: Socket; data: typed) =
+  ## an alias for 'send'.
+  send(socket, data)
+
 proc trySend*(socket: Socket, data: string): bool {.tags: [WriteIOEffect].} =
   ## Safe alternative to ``send``. Does not raise an EOS when an error occurs,
   ## and instead returns ``false`` on failure.

lib/system.nim

@@ -3286,6 +3286,10 @@ proc `/=`*[T: float|float32](x: var T, y: T) {.inline, noSideEffect.} =
   x = x / y
 
 proc `&=`* (x: var string, y: string) {.magic: "AppendStrStr", noSideEffect.}
+template `&=`*(x, y: typed) = add(x, y)
+template `&=`*(f: File, x: typed) = write(f, x)
+  ## generic 'sink' operator for Nim. For files an alias for ``write``.
+  ## If not specialized further an alias for ``add``.
 
 proc astToStr*[T](x: T): string {.magic: "AstToStr", noSideEffect.}
   ## converts the AST of `x` into a string representation. This is very useful

web/news.txt

@@ -27,6 +27,8 @@ Library Additions
 
 - The rlocks module has been added providing reentrant lock synchronization
   primitive.
+- A generic "sink operator" written as ``&=`` has been added to the ``system`` and the ``net`` modules.
+
 
 Compiler Additions
 ------------------