Analysis time binding of restricted `Generic`s
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Description
Feature
A generic type defined with reference to a restricted type variable only makes sense when containing a value of type within the restrictions of the type variable.
It would then make sense to assume that when the user does not bind the generic type (that is, they do not provide a type argument), the implied type is the Union of the possible bound types.
To Reproduce
from typing import Any
from typing import AnyStr
from typing import Generic
class Message(Generic[AnyStr]):
header: AnyStr
content: AnyStr
def __init__(self, header: AnyStr, content: AnyStr) -> None:
self.header = header
self.content = content
# This feels wrong to me, and I'd rather see this as Union[Message[str], Message[bytes]]
m1: Message = Message(header="foo", content="bar")
reveal_type(m1) # Message[Any]...
# This is perhaps ok, since the user explicitly passed the `Any` parameter. But if this behavior is kept,
# one shouldn't be forced to provide a type arg to restricted generics in strict mode, since that
# would imply having to enumerate the restriction to get the same behavior as above.
m2: Message[Any] = Message(header="foo", content="bar")
reveal_type(m2) # Message[Any]...
Pitch
Say I have a function that accepts any valid Message as an arg:
def read(msg: Message) -> None:
msg.content.method_in_neither_str_nor_bytes()
If I annotate it like I just did, I get no hand-holding from the type checker. msg.content is understood as Any, so everything goes. We know, however, that this has to be one of AnyStr. If I want type checker assistance, I now have to manually list the possible Message types, like so:
def read(msg: Union[Message[str], Message[bytes]]) -> None:
msg.content.method_in_neither_str_nor_bytes()
This is fine when the restriction consists of two types, but it should be easy to imagine examples with a more verbose restriction.
Contributor guide
First steps
- Read the whole issue, then the project's contributing guide.
- Comment on the issue to say you are picking it up — it saves two people doing the same work.
- Fork the repository and make your change on a branch.
- Open a pull request that references the issue number.
Research direction
The issue names no implementation files, tests, or entry points. Start with the reproduction and the existing handling of unbound restricted generics; done means inferring the union of permitted bound types instead of Any, while preserving explicitly supplied Any behavior and adding coverage for the shown cases.
Written by the indexing model from the issue text.
Assessment
- Tech stack
- python
- Domain
- devtools
- Issue type
- Feature
- Difficulty
- 5/5
- Estimated time
- Over a week
- Activity status
- Stale
- Clarity
- Mostly clear
- Newbie friendliness
- 25/100