[swift-evolution] [Pitch] Parse expressions after 'as' and 'is' instead of just types

[Dave Abrahams]

on Mon May 16 2016, Joe Groff <swift-evolution at swift.org> wrote:

> Currently, we parse a type after 'as[?!]' and 'is'. This is mostly
> what you'd expect, but does lead to problems when an 'as' expression
> appears as part of a comparison:
>
> 	20 as Int64 < y as Int64 // error, '>' expected to close generic parameter list Int64<y>
>
> Looking to the future, many people have also expressed interest in the
> ability to do dynamic type checks against metatype values, not only
> static types, as in:
>
> 	class Base {}
> 	class DerivedA {}
> 	class DerivedB {}
>
> 	var x: Base.Type = DerivedA
>
> 	DerivedA() as? x // succeeds
> 	DerivedB() as? x // fails
>
> If we accept
> https://github.com/apple/swift-evolution/blob/master/proposals/0090-remove-dot-self.md,
> dropping the '.self' requirement to refer to type objects, then I
> think we should also change 'is' and 'as' to parse the expression
> grammar on their right-hand side, leaving it up to the normal
> expression disambiguation rule to handle angle brackets. This solves
> the '20 as Int64 < x' problem, and prepares us to support dynamic
> is/as queries in the future. (To be clear, designing dynamic queries
> should be its own discussion.) What do you all think?

+1

-- 
-Dave