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74 lines
2.3 KiB
Markdown
74 lines
2.3 KiB
Markdown
# Unsealed table literals
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## Summary
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Currently the only way to create an unsealed table is as an empty table literal `{}`.
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This RFC proposes making all table literals unsealed.
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## Motivation
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Table types can be *sealed* or *unsealed*. These are different in that:
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* Unsealed table types are *precise*: if a table has unsealed type `{ p: number, q: string }`
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then it is guaranteed to have only properties `p` and `q`.
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* Sealed tables support *width subtyping*: if a table has sealed type `{ p: number }`
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then it is guaranteed to have at least property `p`, so we allow `{ p: number, q: string }`
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to be treated as a subtype of `{ p: number }`
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* Unsealed tables can have properties added to them: if `t` has unsealed type
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`{ p: number }` then after the assignment `t.q = "hi"`, `t`'s type is updated to be
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`{ p: number, q: string }`.
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* Unsealed tables are subtypes of sealed tables.
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Currently the only way to create an unsealed table is using an empty table literal, so
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```lua
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local t = {}
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t.p = 5
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t.q = "hi"
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```
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typechecks, but
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```lua
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local t = { p = 5 }
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t.q = "hi"
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```
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does not.
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This causes problems in examples, for instance
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```lua
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local t : { p: number, q: string? } = { p = 5, q = "hi" }
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t = { p = 7 }
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```
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typechecks because we allow subtyping to strip away optional
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properties, so `{ p : number }` is a subtype of
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`{ p : number, q : string? }`. Unfortunately this is not sound,
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since sealed tables support width subtyping:
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```lua
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local t : { p: number, q: string? } = { p = 5, q = "hi" }
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local u : { p: number } = { p = 5, q = false }
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t = u
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```
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## Design
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The fix for this source of unsoundness is twofold:
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1. make all table literals unsealed, and
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2. only allow stripping optional properties from when the
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supertype is sealed and the subtype is unsealed.
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This RFC is for (1). There is a [separate RFC](unsealed-table-subtyping-strips-optional-properties.md) for (2).
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## Drawbacks
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Making all table literals unsealed is a conservative change, it only removes type errors.
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It does encourage developers to add new properties to tables during initialization, which
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may be considered poor style.
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## Alternatives
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We could introduce a new table state for unsealed-but-precise
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tables. The trade-off is that that would be more precise, at the cost
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of adding user-visible complexity to the type system.
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