SI-5022 Retain precise existentials through pattern matching

From the dawn of scalac's existentials, the typer widens
existentials pt-s by substituting wildcard types in places
of existential quantifiers.

In this example:

    class ForSomeVsUnapply {
      def test {
        def makeWrap: Wrap = ???
        def useRep[e](rep: (e, X[e])) = ()

        val rep = makeWrap match {
          case Wrap(r) => r
        };

        useRep(rep) // error
      }
    }

the type of `r` is the result of typechecking:

    Apply(
     fun = TypeTree(
       tpe = (rep#12037: (e#12038, X#7041[e#12038]) forSome { type e#12038 })
     args = Bind(r @ _) :: Nil
    }

This descends to type the `Bind` with:

    pt = (e#12038, X#7041[e#12038]) forSome { type e#12038 }

`dropExistential` clobbers that type to `Tuple2#1540[?, X#7041[?]]`,
which doesn't express any relationship between the two instances
of the wildcard type. `typedIdent` sort of reverses this with a call
to `makeFullyDefined`, but only ends up with:

    pt = (Any#3330, X#7041[_1#12227]) forSome { type _1#12227; type e#12038 }

I suspect that this existential dropping only makes sense outside of
typechecking patterns. In pattern mode, type information flows from the
expected type onwards to the body of the case; we must not lose precision
in the types.

For SIP-18 friendly existentials, one `dropExistential` is invertable with
`makeFullyDefined`, so this hasn't been such a big problem.

The error message improvement conferred by SI-4515 took a hit.
That might be a good example to consider when reviewing this change:
Does it tell us anything interesting about this `dropExistential`
business?

1 files changed, 7 insertions, 2 deletions

diff --git a/src/compiler/scala/tools/nsc/typechecker/Typers.scala b/src/compiler/scala/tools/nsc/typechecker/Typers.scala
index 238727d2e9..53eafd956d 100644
--- a/src/compiler/scala/tools/nsc/typechecker/Typers.scala
+++ b/src/compiler/scala/tools/nsc/typechecker/Typers.scala
@@ -5108,7 +5108,7 @@ trait Typers extends Adaptations with Tags {
             if (mode.inPatternMode) {
               val uncheckedTypeExtractor = extractorForUncheckedType(tpt.pos, tptTyped.tpe)
               // make fully defined to avoid bounded wildcard types that may be in pt from calling dropExistential (SI-2038)
-              val ptDefined = ensureFullyDefined(pt)
+              val ptDefined = ensureFullyDefined(pt) // FIXME this is probably redundant now that we don't dropExistenial in pattern mode.
               val ownType = inferTypedPattern(tptTyped, tptTyped.tpe, ptDefined, canRemedy = uncheckedTypeExtractor.nonEmpty)
               treeTyped setType ownType
 
@@ -5342,7 +5342,12 @@ trait Typers extends Adaptations with Tags {
               "context.owner"    -> context.owner
             )
           )
-          typed1(tree, mode, dropExistential(ptPlugins))
+          val ptWild = if (mode.inPatternMode)
+            ptPlugins // SI-5022 don't widen pt for patterns as types flow from it to the case body.
+          else
+            dropExistential(ptPlugins) // FIXME: document why this is done.
+
+          typed1(tree, mode, ptWild)
         }
         // Can happen during erroneous compilation - error(s) have been
         // reported, but we need to avoid causing an NPE with this tree