Unable to anchor a local variable type from a TUPLE.item_n

The following code fails to compile:
class TESTER
creation {ANY}
    execute
feature {NONE}
    t: TUPLE[INTEGER,REAL_64,STRING];

    execute is
        local
            x: like t.item_2 
        do
            t := [ {INTEGER 1},2.0,"three"]
            x := t.item_2
            print(
                "tuple.count: " + t.count.out + "%N" +
                "item_1: " + t.item_1.out + "%N" +
                "item_2: " + t.item_2.out + "%N" +
                "item_3: " + t.item_3.out + "%N"
            )
        end
end

The following code succeeds to compile:
class TESTER
creation {ANY}
    execute
feature {NONE}
    r: REAL_64

    t: TUPLE[INTEGER,like r,STRING];

    execute is
        local
            x: like r 
        do
            t := [ {INTEGER 1},2.0,"three"]
            x := t.item_2
            print(
                "tuple.count: " + t.count.out + "%N" +
                "item_1: " + t.item_1.out + "%N" +
                "item_2: " + t.item_2.out + "%N" +
                "item_3: " + t.item_3.out + "%N"
            )
        end
end


Since the second source compiles and runs fine.
I would expect the first to compile and run too.
Did we miss something?

BTW
The Boost C++ tuple class library can do this.
And so can the tuple<> class that has been proposed
for the next ISO C++ standard.

I mean a local variable can be declared whose
type is the same as a tuple's 2nd item's type.
C++ tuple indexing is zero based.

Although not too pretty in my eyes,
the C++ code would look like:

#include<iostream>
#include<string>
#include<tuple>
using namespace std;

int main(int count,char** arguments) {
    tuple<int,double,string> t(1,2.0,"three");
    tuple_element<1,tuple<int,double,string>::type x = get<1>(t) // HERE IT IS.
    cout
    << "tuple.size=" << tuple_size< tuple<int,double,string> >::value << '\n'
    << "t[0]= " << get<0>(t) << '\n'
    << "t[1]= " << get<1>(t) << '\n'
    << "t[2]= " << get<2>(t) << '\n';
    return 0;
}

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