Inherited types in callback functions

[arknave]

Typescript is too lenient when accepting sub-classes in inherited types. For example:

interface Base {
 baseField: string;
}
interface Child extends Base {
 childField: number;
}

var test = function (callbackfn: (value: Base) => void): void {
 callbackfn({baseField: ""});
};

var callTest = function() {
 test(function (value: Child) {
 console.log(value.childField);
 });
};

should not compile, as callbackfn requires a Base, not a Child. It is not correct that value is a child. If Child does not extend Base, then this causes a compile error as expected. However, if we add no explicit hierarchy between the classes, but change the example to

interface Base {
 baseField: string;
}
interface Child {
 baseField: string; 
 childField: number;
}

var test = function (callbackfn: (value: Base) => void): void {
 callbackfn({baseField: ""});
};

var callTest = function() {
 test(function (value: Child) {
 console.log(value.childField);
 });
};

then the code still compiles. Both of these are errors that should hopefully be caught at compile time. It looks like typescript only checks to see if a callback parameter is valid if the classes have common members. This should be changed to a subset.

[basarat]

@arknave this is by design. It allows you to type event handler arguments easily e.g. e:MouseEvent when the original signature is only e:Event. Its allowed as long as a is subtype of b or b is subtype of a

[basarat]

@arknave documentation : https://github.com/Microsoft/TypeScript/wiki/Type%20Compatibility#function-argument-bivariance

[arknave]

Man, even the documentation agrees its unsound. Thanks for the link, not sure why I couldn't find it.