[swift-evolution] [Proposal] Typed throws

[Anton Zhilin]

I understand how parametric polymorphism works *in Haskell*. But we talk
about Swift, and there *is* a way to get an instance of E. I’ll explain it
another way:

func bypassRethrows<E: Error>(_ f: () throws(E) -> ()) throws(E) {
    let error: Error = MyError()  // create an instance of `MyError`
    if MyError.self is E.Type {   // in case `E` happens to be `MyError`
        let e: E = error as! E    // then we've actually created an
instance of `E`, and we can downcast safely
        throw e                   // voila, acquired an instance of `E`
    }
}
let f: () throws MyError -> () = { }
try bypassRethrows(f)             // actually throws `MyError`,
without ever calling `f`

What line here seems impossible?

2017-02-22 18:39 GMT+03:00 Matthew Johnson <matthew at anandabits.com>:

No because there are many types that conform to `Error` but are not `E` and
> the signature says you only throw `E`.  You have no way to get an instance
> of `E` except by catching one thrown by `f` because `Error` does not have
> any initializers and you don’t have any visibility to anything that
> provides an `E` in any way except when `f` throws.
>
> I am hoping to have time to write up my analysis of generic rethrowing
> functions later today.  There are some very interesting tradeoffs we need
> to make.
>
​
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