> I am curious to know the reasons behind the @as() syntax. What's wrong with "i32 y = (i32) x;"?

Built-ins in Zig are functions beginning with `@`. Your cast operator would be a new syntax construct, something Zig tries to limit as much as possible (keeping the parser simple).

> What type is "b"? i32?

That's easy, i32. Integer literals are of type comptime_int, which may coerce into other integer types if possible without loss of information, and since the only typed expression is the @as, every other integer in the line will coerce to its type.