Small mistake in method call expressions explanation?

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Assessment

Difficulty
2/5
Estimated time
1-3 hours
Newbie friendliness
45/100
Issue type
Documentation
Clarity
Clearly specified
Activity status
Stale
Tech stack
rust
Domain
documentation

Research direction

Start with the method-call expressions explanation at doc.rust-lang.org/reference/expressions/method-call-expr.html and compare the wording about candidate type T with the Foo and &Foo example in this issue. Confirm the distinction between receiver type and the type whose inherent methods are searched, then revise the explanation so it is accurate and clear.

Written by the indexing model from the issue text.

Description

A-method-call

Here it says:

Then, for each candidate type T, search for a visible method with a receiver of that type in the following places:

  1. T's inherent methods (methods implemented directly on T).
  2. [...]

The part "methods implemented directly on T" is not completely correct, I think. As first sentence already says, we are searching for methods with the receiver type T, not methods in an impl block for T. And those two types can obviously be different.

impl Foo {
    fn by_ref(&self) {}
}

Suppose our candidate type T is &Foo, then by_ref would be a "visible method with a receiver of that type". However, the method by_ref is not implemented on &Foo, but on Foo. In other words: Self in that method is Foo, not &Foo.

To fix this, I would replace "methods implemented directly on T" with: "methods that belong to a type and not to a trait". Or something like that.

Am I correct that the current phrasing is wrong/very misleading? Or am I missing something?

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