It would be better if string literals could be used there.

Why are you suggesting that string literals cannot be used? Works fine for me.

error: deprecated conversion from string constant to ‘char*’

I like -Werror.

I still can't reproduce the problem, not even with -Werror:

loewis@dinsdale:~$ cat a.c
struct Foo{
  char *text;
};

struct Foo f = {
  "data"
};

int main()
{
  return 0;
}

loewis@dinsdale:~$ gcc -Wall -Werror -o a a.c
loewis@dinsdale:~$ gcc --version
gcc (Debian 4.7.2-5) 4.7.2
Copyright (C) 2012 Free Software Foundation, Inc.
This is free software; see the source for copying conditions.  There is NO
warranty; not even for MERCHANTABILITY or FITNESS FOR A PARTICULAR PURPOSE.

loewis@dinsdale:~$

g++

It is const char* now.