diff --git a/guide.md b/guide.md index babf584884c..d6a9057de13 100644 --- a/guide.md +++ b/guide.md @@ -426,8 +426,65 @@ actually written by the user. [`HirFileId`]: https://github.com/rust-analyzer/rust-analyzer/blob/guide-2019-01/crates/ra_hir/src/ids.rs#L18-L125 +Now that we understand how to identify a definition, in a source or in a +macro-generated file, we can discuss name resolution a bit. + ## Name resolution +Name resolution faces the same problem as the module tree: if we look at the +syntax tree directly, we'll have to recompute name resolution after every +modification. The solution to the problem is the same: we [lower] source code of +each module into a position-independent representation which does not change if +we modify bodies of the items. After that we [loop] resolving all imports until +we've reached a fixed point. + +[lower]: https://github.com/rust-analyzer/rust-analyzer/blob/guide-2019-01/crates/ra_hir/src/nameres/lower.rs#L113-L117 +[loop]: https://github.com/rust-analyzer/rust-analyzer/blob/guide-2019-01/crates/ra_hir/src/nameres/lower.rs#L113-L117 + +And, given all our preparation with ids and position-independent representation, +it is satisfying to [test] that typing inside function body does not invalidate +name resolution results. + +[test]: https://github.com/rust-analyzer/rust-analyzer/blob/guide-2019-01/crates/ra_hir/src/nameres/tests.rs#L376 + +An interesting fact about name resolution is that it "erases" all of +intermediate paths from the imports: in the end, we know which items are defined +and which items are imported in each module, but, if the import was `use +foo::bar::baz`, we deliberately forget what modules `foo` and `bar` resolve to. + +To serve "goto definition" requests on intermediate segments we need this info +in IDE. Luckily, we need it only for a tiny fraction of imports, so we just ask +the module explicitly, "where does `foo::bar` path resolve to?". This is a +general pattern: we try to compute the minimal possible amount of information +during analysis while allowing IDE to ask for additional specific bits. + +Name resolution is also a good place to introduce another salsa pattern used +throughout the analyzer: + ## Source Map pattern +Due to an obscure edge case in completion, IDE needs to know the syntax node of +an use statement which imported the given completion candidate. We can't just +store the syntax node as a part of name resolution: this will break +incrementality, due to the fact that syntax changes after every file +modification. + +We solve this problem during the lowering step of name resolution. Lowering +query actually produces a *pair* of outputs: `LoweredModule` and [`SourceMap`]. +`LoweredModule` module contains [imports], but in a position-independent form. +The `SourceMap` contains a mapping from position-independent imports to +(position-dependent) syntax nodes. + +The result of this basic lowering query changes after every modification. But +there's an intermediate [projection query] which returns only the first +position-independent part of the lowering. The result of this query is stable. +Naturally, name resolution [uses] this stable projection query. + +[imports]: https://github.com/rust-analyzer/rust-analyzer/blob/guide-2019-01/crates/ra_hir/src/nameres/lower.rs#L52-L59 +[`SourceMap`]: https://github.com/rust-analyzer/rust-analyzer/blob/guide-2019-01/crates/ra_hir/src/nameres/lower.rs#L52-L59 +[projection query]: https://github.com/rust-analyzer/rust-analyzer/blob/guide-2019-01/crates/ra_hir/src/nameres/lower.rs#L97-L103 +[uses]: https://github.com/rust-analyzer/rust-analyzer/blob/guide-2019-01/crates/ra_hir/src/query_definitions.rs#L49 + +## Type inference + ## Tying it all together: completion