Arbitrary self types v2: update reference. by adetaylor · Pull Request #1699 · rust-lang/reference (original) (raw)

The first step is to build a list of types where we might find methods.

Obtain these by repeatedly [dereferencing][dereference] the receiver expression's type, adding each type encountered to the list, then finally attempting an [unsized coercion] at the end, and adding the result type if that is successful.

Then, for each candidate `T`, add `&T` and `&mut T` to the list immediately after `T`.

Then, for each candidate `T`, add `&T` and `&mut T` to the list immediately after `T`. While dereferencing, we don't use the normal `Deref` trait, but instead the `Receiver` trait: there is a blanket implementation of `Receiver` for all `T: Deref` so in practice this is often the same.

For instance, if the receiver has type `Box<[i32;2]>`, then the candidate types will be `Box<[i32;2]>`, `&Box<[i32;2]>`, `&mut Box<[i32;2]>`, `[i32; 2]` (by dereferencing), `&[i32; 2]`, `&mut [i32; 2]`, `[i32]` (by unsized coercion), `&[i32]`, and finally `&mut [i32]`.

For instance, if the receiver has type `Box<[i32;2]>`, then the contributing types will be `Box<[i32;2]>`, `&Box<[i32;2]>`, `&mut Box<[i32;2]>`, `[i32; 2]` (by dereferencing), `&[i32; 2]`, `&mut [i32; 2]`, `[i32]` (by unsized coercion), `&[i32]`, and finally `&mut [i32]`.

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

Some custom smart pointers may implement `Receiver` but not `Deref`. Imagine `MySmartPtr: Receiver<Target=T>`: if the receiver type has `Box<MySmartPtr>` the contributing types will be `Box<MySmartPtr>`, `MySmartPtr` and `SomeStruct`.

Even though we assemble this list by following the chain of `Receiver` implementations, we keep a note of which steps can be reached by following the regular `Deref` chain. In the above example, that would be all but the last step. The items in the list reachable by the `Deref` chain are termed the "candidate types"; the full list reachable by the `Receiver` chain is called the "contributing types".

Then, for each _contributing_ type `T`, search for a [visible] method with a receiver of any _candidate_ type in the following places: