[swift-users] Covariance in protocol adoption

[Diego Sánchez]

Hi all,

Covariance works properly with classes:

class MyType {}
class MySubtype: MyType {}
class MyClass {
    func createMyType() -> MyType {
        return MyType()
    }
}

class MySubClass: MyClass {
    override func createMyType() -> MySubtype {
        return MySubtype()
    }
}

However it doesn't work for protocol conformance:

protocol MyProtocol {
    func createMyType() -> MyType
}

class MyConformingClass: MyProtocol {
    func createMyType() -> MySubtype {
        return MySubtype()
    }
}

Compiler error for this case:
error: type 'MyConformingClass' does not conform to protocol 'MyProtocol'
note: protocol requires function 'createMyType()' with type '() -> MyType'
note: candidate has non-matching type '() -> MySubtype'

I know I can fix it by using associated objects in MyProtocol definition,
but then if I want to declare a property of type MyProtocol I have to go
dancing with generics everywhere.

Is this a known limitation/bug? Any plans to improve this?

Cheers,
Diego
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