microsoft / microsoft/TypeScript

Existential type?

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Description

Here's a case where I need a few existentials. It's for a definition file, where I need to have parameters for Binding and Scheduler, but it doesn't matter to me what they are. All I care about is that they're internally correct (and any doesn't cover this), and I'd rather not simulate it by making the constructor unnecessarily generic.

The alternative for me is to be able to declare additional constructor-specific type parameters that don't carry to other methods, but existentials would make it easier.

export interface Scheduler<Frame, Idle> {
    nextFrame(func: () => any): Frame;
    cancelFrame(frame: Frame): void;
    nextIdle(func: () => any): Idle;
    cancelIdle(frame: Idle): void;
    nextTick(func: () => any): void;
}

export interface Binding<E> extends Component {
    binding: E;

    patchEnd?(): void;

    patchAdd?(
        prev: string | E | void,
        next: string | E | void,
        pos: number,
    ): void;

    patchRemove?(
        prev: string | E | void,
        next: string | E | void,
        pos: number
    ): void;

    patchChange?(
        oldPrev: string | E | void,
        newPrev: string | E | void,
        oldNext: string | E | void,
        newNext: string | E | void,
        oldPos: number,
        newPos: number
    ): void;
}

export class Subtree {
    constructor(
        onError?: (err: Error) => any,
        scheduler?: type<F, I> Scheduler<F, I>
    );

    // ...
}

export class Root extends Subtree {
    constructor(
        component: type<E> Binding<E>,
        onError?: (err: Error) => any,
        scheduler?: type<F, I> Scheduler<F, I>
    );

    // ...
}

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Research direction

Start with the existential-type examples in the issue. No source file, test, or entry point is named, so identify the TypeScript type-system and declaration-processing areas involved before assessing the design. Done would mean supporting the requested existential parameters while preserving the internal relationships between Binding and Scheduler types.

Written by the indexing model from the issue text.

Assessment

Tech stack
typescript
Domain
compilers
Issue type
Feature
Difficulty
5/5
Estimated time
Over a week
Activity status
Active
Clarity
Mostly clear
Newbie friendliness
30/100

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