Swift Generics: Extending a non-generic type with a property of generic type where the generic parameter is the extended type

[tomkraina]

Problem

I have a type that takes one generic parameter that is required to inherit from UIView:

class Handler<View: UIView> {
   ...
}

Now, I want write a UIView extension to provide a property that returns Handler and uses Self as the generic parameter, so that in subclasses of UIView I'd always get the handler of type Handler<UIViewSubclass>:

extension UIView {
   var handler: Handler<Self>? { return nil }
}

However this does not compile:

Covariant 'Self' can only appear at the top level of property type

I have also tried to define a protocol HandlerProvider first:

public protocol HandlerProvider {
    associatedtype View: UIView

    var handler: Handler<View>? { get }
}

(so far so good) and then extend UIView with that protocol:

extension UIView: HandlerProvider {
    public typealias View = Self

    public var handler: Handler<View>? { return nil }
}

But that does not compile either:

Covariant 'Self' can only appear as the type of a property, subscript or method result; did you mean 'UIView'?

Question

Is there a way in Swift to use Self as a generic parameter for properties in extension?

[xwu (Xiaodi Wu)]

@tomkraina

Is there a way in Swift to use Self as a generic parameter for properties in extension?

No, there isn't.