When is @uncheckedVariance needed in Scala, and why is it used in GenericTraversableTemplate?

Question

@uncheckedVariance can be used to bridge the gap between Scala\'s declaration site variance annotations and Java\'s invariant generics.

scala>         


        

Answer 1

I found another time where @uncheckedVariance is used -- the synthetic method that returns the default value for a parameter of an abstract type:

M:\>scala -Xprint:typer -e "class C { def p[T >: Null](t: T = null) = t }"
[[syntax trees at end of typer]]// Scala source: (virtual file)
package  {
  final object Main extends java.lang.Object with ScalaObject {
    def this(): object Main = {
      Main.super.this();
      ()
    };
    def main(argv: Array[String]): Unit = {
      val args: Array[String] = argv;
      {
        final class $anon extends scala.AnyRef {
          def this(): anonymous class $anon = {
            $anon.super.this();
            ()
          };
          class C extends java.lang.Object with ScalaObject {
             def p$default$1[T >: Null <: Any]: Null @scala.annotation.unchecked.uncheckedVariance = null;
            def this(): this.C = {
              C.super.this();
              ()
            };
            def p[T >: Null <: Any](t: T = null): T = t
          }
        };
        {
          new $anon();
          ()
        }
      }
    }
  }