proposal: go/types: an API for normalized interface terms

[findleyr]

This is a placeholder for planning purposes, to be exchanged for a proper proposal at a future date.

EDIT(2024-02-06): Please see the actual proposal in this comment below: #61013 (comment)

As discussed in #60994, there are some missing go/types APIs that are currently papered over with the x/exp/typeparams package.

In particular, we should propose a go/types API that serves the purpose of the NormalTerms function -- some way to traverse a normalized representation of the terms of an interface types.

We could expose an equivalent API to NormalTerms, or do something simpler. Let's decide early in the go1.22 cycle.

CC @griesemer @adonovan @timothy-king @mdempsky

[timothy-king]

Might be helpful to go over what x/tools/go/ssa uses. The heaviest usage of NormalTerms is indirect via x/tools/internal/typeparams.CoreType. If we only release NormalTerms, CoreType will be the performance sensitive path. Other uses of NormalTerm go through the function x/tools/go/ssa.typeSetOf. The use of this is somewhat varied. FWIW all uses only pay attention to the underlying types in the list.

[gopherbot]

This issue is currently labeled as early-in-cycle for Go 1.22.
That time is now, so a friendly reminder to look at it again.

[findleyr]

Unfortunately, this isn't going to happen for 1.22, which is perhaps not unreasonable given #63940. Let's wait another cycle to see if the correct API emerges.

[gopherbot]

This issue is currently labeled as early-in-cycle for Go 1.23.
That time is now, so a friendly reminder to look at it again.

[findleyr]

I still think we should do this, but it's been an unfortunately low priority as most users have access to terms via x/tools/internal or x/exp/typeparams.

Moving to the backlog, as it seems unlikely that we'll take this on before there is more demand. As mentioned above, #63940 is a higher priority for the team, and may affect the design of this API.

[findleyr]

@timothy-king as you are working on go/types and have a lot of experience with core types / normalized interface terms from your work on go/ssa, you seem like the perfect person to design a nice API here :)

Tentatively reassigning, though I will leave it to you to prioritize.