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authorAlex Crichton <alex@alexcrichton.com>2015-03-27 10:07:43 -0700
committerAlex Crichton <alex@alexcrichton.com>2015-03-27 10:07:43 -0700
commite6166b74988d7d5201152ae4e142f04a3d3a0e5b (patch)
treeb235cfcdc92a8249c5061743cce03ea24c1468b0 /src/libsyntax/parse
parentadbb5160675bcb9aba0569782ff15061b4dbbb92 (diff)
parentdd8cf9238940b7b0dc54cc05d0788d8d7282aa27 (diff)
downloadrust-e6166b74988d7d5201152ae4e142f04a3d3a0e5b.tar.gz
rust-e6166b74988d7d5201152ae4e142f04a3d3a0e5b.zip
rollup merge of #23712: nikomatsakis/reflect-trait
This PR introduces a `Reflect` marker trait which is a supertrait of `Any`. The idea is that `Reflect` is defined for all concrete types, but is not defined for type parameters unless there is a `T:Reflect` bound. This is intended to preserve the parametricity property. This allows the `Any` interface to be stabilized without committing us to unbounded reflection that is not easily detectable by the caller.

The implementation of `Reflect` relies on an experimental variant of OIBIT. This variant behaves differently for objects, since it requires that all types exposed as part of the object's *interface* are `Reflect`, but isn't concerned about other types that may be closed over. In other words, you don't have to write `Foo+Reflect` in order for `Foo: Reflect` to hold (where `Foo` is a trait).

Given that `Any` is slated to stabilization and hence that we are committed to some form of reflection, the goal of this PR is to leave our options open with respect to parametricity. I see the options for full stabilization as follows (I think an RFC would be an appropriate way to confirm whichever of these three routes we take):

1. We make `Reflect` a lang-item.
2. We stabilize some version of the OIBIT variation I implemented as a general mechanism that may be appropriate for other use cases.
3. We give up on preserving parametricity here and just have `impl<T> Reflect for T` instead. In that case, `Reflect` is a harmless but not especially useful trait going forward.

cc @aturon
cc @alexcrichton
cc @glaebhoerl (this is more-or-less your proposal, as I understood it)
cc @reem (this is more-or-less what we discussed on IRC at some point)
cc @FlaPer87 (vaguely pertains to OIBIT)
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