Where does the where clause go?

UPDATE

This document is retained for historical purposes. See the Where the Where conclusion for the most up-to-date conversation.

Summary

Proposed: to alter the syntax of where clauses on type aliases so that they appear after the value:

type StringMap<K> = BTreeMap<K, String>
where
    K: PartialOrd

This applies both in top-level modules and in trats (associated types, generic or otherwise).

Background

The current syntax for where to place the "where clause" of a generic associated types is awkward. Consider this example (playground):

#![allow(unused)]
fn main() {
trait Iterable {
    type Iter<'a> where Self: 'a;

    fn iter(&self) -> Self::Iter<'_>;
}

impl<T> Iterable for Vec<T> {
    type Iter<'a>
    where 
        Self: 'a = <&'a [T] as IntoIterator>::IntoIter;

    fn iter(&self) -> Self::Iter<'_> {
        self.iter()
    }
}
}

Note the impl. Most people expect the impl to be written as follows (indeed, the author wrote it this way in the first draft):

#![allow(unused)]
fn main() {
impl Iterable for Vec<T> {
    type Iter<'a>  = <&'a [T] as Iterator>::Iter
    where 
        Self: 'a;

    fn iter(&self) -> Self::Iter<'_> {
        self.iter()
    }
}
}

However, this placement of the where clause is in fact rather inconsistent, since the = <&'a [T] as Iterator>::Iter is in some sense the "body" of the item.

The same current syntax is used for where clauses on type aliases (playground):

type Foo<T> where T: Eq = Vec<T>;

fn main() { }

Top-level type aliases

Currently, we accept where clauses in top-level type aliases, but they are deprecated (warning) and semi-ignored:

type StringMap<K> where
    K: PartialOrd
= BTreeMap<K, String>

Under this proposal, this syntax remains, but is deprecated. The newer syntax for type aliases (with where coming after the type) would remain feature gated until such time as we enforce the expected semantics.

Alternatives

Keep the current syntax.

In this case, we must settle the question of how we expect it to be formatted (surely not as I have shown it above).

#![allow(unused)]
fn main() {
impl<T> Iterable for Vec<T> {
    type Iter<'a> where Self: 'a 
        = <&'a [T] as IntoIterator>::IntoIter;

    fn iter(&self) -> Self::Iter<'_> {
        self.iter()
    }
}
}

Accept either

What do we do if both are supplied?