python / python/typing

Spec for subtypes of type variable constraints too vague

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まだ誰も着手していません。

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説明

The spec is very vague when it comes to instantiating a type variable with constraints with a subtype of one of the constraints:

https://github.com/python/typing/blob/b806c04133760efee732ce5081b177d84def22fe/docs/spec/generics.rst?plain=1#L71-L81

Let's look at a slightly more involved example:

class C[T: (int, str)]:
    def __init__(self, t: T) -> None:
        self.t: T = t

c = C(True)

The example in the spec implies that the constructor call is fine because True is of type bool, which is a subtype of int, and T can be instantiated to int. Thus, c should have type C[int]. This makes perfect sense and is totally natural if you write a bidirectional type checker anyway. Nothing controversial here.

What about the following?

c: C[bool] = ...

Does the type "widening" to the base type mentioned in the spec apply here too and this has to be interpreted as if the user had written C[int]? At least pyright interprets it this way. I'm wondering if this was the intent of the spec? Off the top of my head, I cannot think of a situation where this would be a useful feature (but I'm happy to convinced otherwise). Moreover, this can become rather counter-intuitive when C[bool] appears in contravariant positions.

I would like to get a conversation going that crystallizes the intent of the spec in this regard. If we come to a conclusion, I'd be more than happy to update the docs to reflect this outcome.


Here's how I would roughly specify the feature:

  1. Explicit instantiations of constrained type variables via class/alias specializations must be taken at face value and not automatically be widened to base types. If the explicitly mentioned type argument is neither a type variable nor a type equivalent to one of the constraints, that's a type error. For the exact meaning of "equivalent", I would suggest to pick an equivalence relation on the more syntactic side of the spectrum of possibilities but haven't thought about this aspect too deeply so far.

  2. Explicitly instantiating a constrained type variable T with another type variable S is only allowed if S also has constraints and each of them is also listed in T's constraints (up to the same equivalence as above). (I avoided the word "subset" on purpose since that's too easy to interpret as "subtype", which I do not mean!)

  3. All of this this should also apply to generic functions should there ever be a way to explicitly specialize them.

  4. When inferring type arguments for generic function calls, including constructor calls, the function is conceptually "exploded" into an overloaded function with one case for each constraint and overload resolution decides which constraint to pick as the instantiation for the type variable.

    This gets particularly gnarly in the presence of multiple matching constraints caused by multiple inheritance. Being consistent with overload resolution seems like a good property to have here.

    This covers the covariant case illustrated in the example above where bool gets "widened" to int. It also covers the contravariant case, where the function

    def higher_order[T: (int, str)](f: Callback[[T], None]): ...
    

    can be called with an argument of type Callback[[float], None] and T gets instantiated to int. (In some sense, float gets "narrowed" to int here.)

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調査の方向性

docs/spec/generics.rst から始め、特に制約付き型変数に関するリンク先のセクションを確認し、C[bool]、コンストラクターの推論、反変位置に関する例をレビューしてください。意図されたセマンティクスを決定する前に、提案された4つのルールと既存のコメントでの議論を読んでください。合意に達し、動作を明確に記述するよう仕様を更新すれば完了です。

索引モデルが issue の本文から書いたものです。

評価

技術スタック
python
領域
documentation
issue の種類
ドキュメント
難易度
5/5
見積もり時間
1週間以上
活発さ
停滞
明瞭さ
説明が足りない
初心者へのやさしさ
35/100

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