[swift-evolution] Question about heterogeneous collections

[Dave Abrahams]

on Tue Mar 29 2016, Jason Sadler <swift-evolution at swift.org> wrote:

> Hi folks,
>
> I have an issue with using a heterogeneous array of objects conforming
> to a protocol - I want to write an extension on Array (or
> CollectionType) that applies only when Element : MyProtocol, but I
> can’t call methods in that extension from an instance of [MyProtocol]
> because "Using ‘MyProtocol' as a concrete type conforming to protocol
> ‘MyProtocol' is not supported”

Hint: write your extension so it applies when Element == MyProtocol instead.

> (For more background, my full use case can be seen in this gist: https://gist.github.com/sadlerjw/2cc16b4375b02fe7f400)
>
> I’ve asked about this on swift-users
> (https://lists.swift.org/pipermail/swift-users/Week-of-Mon-20160321/001560.html)
> and got some good workarounds but no one was able to provide me with
> information on any future plans in swift to address this issue -
> whether that’s making protocols conform to themselves, or some other
> improved approach to heterogeneous collections. I wonder if anyone
> here can shed some light on this? (I’m new to the mailing lists,
> sorry!)

-- 
Dave