fsharp / fsharp/fslang-suggestions

Generic attributes

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#965 2 comments 17 reactions 0 assignees View on GitHub
approved-in-principle area: attributes needs rfc
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Description

# Generic attributes

[Champion "Allow Generic Attributes"](https://github.com/dotnet/csharplang/issues/124) is currently in the C# team's working set.

Since [CIL already supported this for a decade](https://stackoverflow.com/a/294259/5429648), if F# were to implement it, we won't have to wait for C# to have this.

## Pros and Cons

The advantages of making this adjustment to F# are
1. Enforcing generic restrictions at compile time which `typeof` cannot do
2. Type-safe attribute members without type-unsafe boxing conversions with reflection
3. Generics is faster than reflection

The disadvantages of making this adjustment to F# are (none)

## Extra information

Estimated cost (XS, S, M, L, XL, XXL): M to L

Related suggestions: (put links to related suggestions here)

## Affidavit (please submit!)

Please tick this by placing a cross in the box:
* [x] This is not a question (e.g. like one you might ask on [stackoverflow](http://stackoverflow.com)) and I have searched stackoverflow for discussions of this issue
* [x] I have [searched both open and closed suggestions on this site](http://github.com/fsharp/fslang-suggestions/issues) and believe this is not a duplicate
* [x] This is not something which has obviously "already been decided" in previous versions of F#. If you're questioning a fundamental design decision that has obviously already been taken (e.g. "Make F# untyped") then please don't submit it.

Please tick all that apply:
* [x] This is not a breaking change to the F# language design
* [x] I or my company would be willing to help implement and/or test this

## For Readers

If you would like to see this issue implemented, please click the :+1: emoji on this issue. These counts are used to generally order the suggestions by engagement.

Contributor guide

No contributing guide indexed for this repository

Research direction

The issue names no files, tests, or F# entry point. Start by reading the linked C# champion proposal and the referenced CIL generic-attribute support, then determine the required F# language design, implementation scope, and tests needed for generic attributes to be complete.

Written by the indexing model from the issue text.

Assessment

Tech stack
fsharp
Domain
compilers
Issue type
Feature
Difficulty
5/5
Estimated time
Over a week
Activity status
Stale
Clarity
Needs clarification
Newbie friendliness
20/100

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