On 7/25/25 16:31, Martin Frb via fpc-devel wrote:
On 25/07/2025 15:20, Mattias Gaertner via fpc-devel wrote:


On 7/25/25 13:44, Martin Frb via fpc-devel wrote:
Currently you can't do

type
   generic TFoo<A> = class
      procedure Bar; virtual;
   end;

   generic FooChild<F: TFoo> = class(F)
      procedure Bar; override;
   end;
[...]

No.

One example is that I have several
   TItem1, TItem2, TItem3,...
and for each a
     TItem1List = specialize TFpgList<TItem1>;

But I don't actually use TItem1, ....

I use
   TMyFinalItem1 =
        specialize TFeatureX<
            specialize TFeatureY<
                specialize TFeatureZ< TItem1 >
           >
       >;

And each list needs to be
   TMyFinalItem1 =
        specialize TFeatureXForList<
            specialize TFeatureYForList<
               specialize TFeatureZForList< specialize TFpgList<TItem1>   >
           >
       >;

IMO that does not look human friendly for reading and debugging.


Currently I can swap the order, and git it working by creating a non generic base.... But that introduces dependencies that were not wanted...


Also, the error by the compiler is
     Error: Generics without specialization cannot be used as a type for a variable

But
    generic FooChild<F: TFoo> = class(F)

- F is not a variable
- TFoo in not a type (for somethnig), TFoo is a constraint

The problem is the ambiguity of TFoo, because Delphi (aka modeswitch) distinguishes TFoo, TFoo<> and TFoo<,>:

type
  generic TFoo<A> = class
     procedure Bar; virtual;
  end;
  generic TFoo<A,B> = class
     procedure NoBar; virtual;
  end;

  generic FooChild<F: TFoo> = class(F)
     procedure Bar; override;
  end;

So you have to be more specific:

  generic FooChild<A,F: specialized TFoo<A>> = class(F)
     procedure Bar; override;
  end;


If that syntax was allowed, it should mean that
-  F must be of any type that is (a descendand of) a specialization of TFoo.

So this is NOT to allow FooChild to be specialized with another generic, but with a (any) specialization of that generic.

AFAIK there is currently no "Any" placeholder in constraints. It would be something like
  generic FooChild<F: specialized TFoo<>> = ...

Although that looks like something was forgotten. Maybe better:

  generic FooChild<F: specialized TFoo<*>> = ...


Mattias

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