<html><head><meta http-equiv="content-type" content="text/html; charset=utf-8"></head><body dir="auto"><div></div><div>This is called generalized existentials. It is included in the Generic Manifesto, has been discussed quite a few times with long email chains before, and spawned the change to the `protocol<>` syntax as kinda a precursor. It would be surprised if Swift 4 Phase 2 doesn't have it given its popularity.</div><div><br></div><div>Regards</div><div>Anders</div><div><br>On 2 Dec 2016, at 20:13, Charles Srstka via swift-evolution <<a href="mailto:swift-evolution@swift.org">swift-evolution@swift.org</a>> wrote:<br><br></div><blockquote type="cite"><div><meta http-equiv="Content-Type" content="text/html charset=utf-8"><blockquote type="cite" class="">On Dec 2, 2016, at 12:34 PM, Adrian Zubarev via swift-evolution <<a href="mailto:swift-evolution@swift.org" class="">swift-evolution@swift.org</a>> wrote:<br class=""></blockquote><div><blockquote type="cite" class=""><br class="Apple-interchange-newline"><div class=""><p style="margin: 15px 0px; -webkit-margin-before: 0px; font-family: Helvetica, Arial; font-size: 13px; font-style: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-weight: normal; letter-spacing: normal; orphans: auto; text-align: start; text-indent: 0px; text-transform: none; white-space: normal; widows: auto; word-spacing: 0px; -webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px;" class="">I just overlooked that the subsection about generic protocols was inside the<span class="Apple-converted-space"> </span><strong style="-webkit-margin-before: 0px;" class="">Unlikely</strong><span class="Apple-converted-space"> </span>section.</p><p style="margin: 15px 0px; font-family: Helvetica, Arial; font-size: 13px; font-style: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-weight: normal; letter-spacing: normal; orphans: auto; text-align: start; text-indent: 0px; text-transform: none; white-space: normal; widows: auto; word-spacing: 0px; -webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px;" class="">The problem is that I need a way to refer to a function with a specific name. Plus the connection type has to have a specific API, like having a DispatchQueue and know the router object if there is any (sounds like a protocol right?!). The function reference should also keep the connection object alive with a strong reference.<span class="Apple-converted-space"> </span></p><p style="margin: 15px 0px; font-family: Helvetica, Arial; font-size: 13px; font-style: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-weight: normal; letter-spacing: normal; orphans: auto; text-align: start; text-indent: 0px; text-transform: none; white-space: normal; widows: auto; word-spacing: 0px; -webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px;" class=""><code style="font-family: Menlo, Consolas, 'Liberation Mono', Courier, monospace; font-size: 10pt; border-top-left-radius: 3px; border-top-right-radius: 3px; border-bottom-right-radius: 3px; border-bottom-left-radius: 3px; background-color: rgb(248, 248, 248); color: inherit; border: 1px solid rgb(234, 234, 234); margin: 0px 2px; padding: 0px 5px; word-break: normal; word-wrap: normal; -webkit-margin-before: 0px;" class="">associatedtype</code><span class="Apple-converted-space"> </span>does not solve that problem for me.</p><p style="margin: 15px 0px; font-family: Helvetica, Arial; font-size: 13px; font-style: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-weight: normal; letter-spacing: normal; orphans: auto; text-align: start; text-indent: 0px; text-transform: none; white-space: normal; widows: auto; word-spacing: 0px; -webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px;" class="">I clearly see that generic protocols overlap with<span class="Apple-converted-space"> </span><code style="font-family: Menlo, Consolas, 'Liberation Mono', Courier, monospace; font-size: 10pt; border-top-left-radius: 3px; border-top-right-radius: 3px; border-bottom-right-radius: 3px; border-bottom-left-radius: 3px; background-color: rgb(248, 248, 248); color: inherit; border: 1px solid rgb(234, 234, 234); margin: 0px 2px; padding: 0px 5px; word-break: normal; word-wrap: normal; -webkit-margin-before: 0px;" class="">associatedtype</code><span class="Apple-converted-space"> </span>but couldn’t we find a compromise here? For instance like Chris Lattner introduced generic type aliases without the ability of constants.</p></div></blockquote></div><div class="">Why don’t we just use angle brackets to specify associated types? Protocols aren’t using them for anything anyway. Then you could:</div><div class=""><br class=""></div><div class="">if let someSequence as? Sequence<Iterator.Element == Int> { // do something }</div><div class=""><br class=""></div><div class="">which would form a nice parallel to the syntax for casting things to generic types.</div><div class=""><br class=""></div><div class="">Charles</div><div class=""><br class=""></div></div></blockquote><blockquote type="cite"><div><span>_______________________________________________</span><br><span>swift-evolution mailing list</span><br><span><a href="mailto:swift-evolution@swift.org">swift-evolution@swift.org</a></span><br><span><a href="https://lists.swift.org/mailman/listinfo/swift-evolution">https://lists.swift.org/mailman/listinfo/swift-evolution</a></span><br></div></blockquote></body></html>