[9.x] Uses generic collections on Eloquent\Model::class

[nunomaduro]

Note: this pull request is waiting for a PHPStan release

This pull request makes Eloquent\Model::class to use generic collections (#38538). In other words, the goal is simply search for Collection, and add the information - regarding generics - to those annotations. Of course, the benefit is, at some point, have auto-completion/static analysis support on code like:

$users = User::where('active', 1)
    ->orderBy('name')
    ->take(10);

$users->first()->userMethod();

Also, in the process, and thanks the @mixin annotation on the Eloquent\Model::class, without the IDE Helper, PHPStorm is able to understand a little bit more of the Model Builder class:

Finally, at this point, is worth waiting for having PHPStorm understand generics before moving forward. If we go deeper on eloquent - as we did with collections (fully type arguments, etc ) - we actually take the risk of losing some auto-completion.

[nunomaduro]

@taylorotwell After giving some thought into this pull request, and while can be attempting to add this pull request to the framework right now, I would rather wait for a larger adoption by editors, before implementing this on Eloquent.

The reasoning behind this decision is that to make a clean work — like the one we have done on generic collections — we would have to remove some existing IDE support on Eloquent, here is one example:

    /**
-    * @return \Illuminate\Database\Eloquent\Model|\Illuminate\Database\Eloquent\Collection|static[]|static|null
+    * @return \Illuminate\Database\Eloquent\Collection<int, TModel>|TModel|null
     */
    public function find($id, $columns = ['*']) {

By doing this change, static analysis tools would be happy, yet, existing IDE support, would lose auto-completion on User::find(1)->save(); or foreach (User::find(1) as $user) { $user->save(); }.

That been said, generics collection is already a big step on this mission, when people can already use them in their own code. Yet, to have them on Eloquent, is worth to wait a little bit longer so we can have a smooth change. So, in my opinion, lets close this pull request, and revisit it once existing editors are able to fully follow us on this.

[morrislaptop]

Hey @nunomaduro, found this from a twitter thread - with the recent support for generics from phpstorm should this be revisited?