diff --git a/src/pkg/net/dnsconfig_unix.go b/src/pkg/net/dnsconfig_unix.go
index 2f0f6c031f..d10f099b12 100644
--- a/src/pkg/net/dnsconfig_unix.go
+++ b/src/pkg/net/dnsconfig_unix.go
@@ -27,7 +27,7 @@ func dnsReadConfig() (*dnsConfig, error) {
 		return nil, &DNSConfigError{err}
 	}
 	conf := new(dnsConfig)
-	conf.servers = make([]string, 3)[0:0] // small, but the standard limit
+	conf.servers = make([]string, 0, 3) // small, but the standard limit
 	conf.search = make([]string, 0)
 	conf.ndots = 1
 	conf.timeout = 5
diff --git a/src/pkg/net/parse.go b/src/pkg/net/parse.go
index 6056de248e..ee6e7e9952 100644
--- a/src/pkg/net/parse.go
+++ b/src/pkg/net/parse.go
@@ -67,7 +67,7 @@ func open(name string) (*file, error) {
 	if err != nil {
 		return nil, err
 	}
-	return &file{fd, make([]byte, os.Getpagesize())[0:0], false}, nil
+	return &file{fd, make([]byte, 0, os.Getpagesize()), false}, nil
 }
 
 func byteIndex(s string, c byte) int {
diff --git a/src/pkg/text/tabwriter/tabwriter_test.go b/src/pkg/text/tabwriter/tabwriter_test.go
index ace5356473..b0526a03f7 100644
--- a/src/pkg/text/tabwriter/tabwriter_test.go
+++ b/src/pkg/text/tabwriter/tabwriter_test.go
@@ -14,7 +14,7 @@ type buffer struct {
 	a []byte
 }
 
-func (b *buffer) init(n int) { b.a = make([]byte, n)[0:0] }
+func (b *buffer) init(n int) { b.a = make([]byte, 0, n) }
 
 func (b *buffer) clear() { b.a = b.a[0:0] }