Start a chapter about the evolving const effect system (#1808)

* Start a chapter about the evolving const effect system

* Address review comments

Author: oli-obk

src/SUMMARY.md

@@ -136,6 +136,7 @@
     - [Opaque Types](./opaque-types-type-alias-impl-trait.md)
         - [Inference details](./opaque-types-impl-trait-inference.md)
         - [Return Position Impl Trait In Trait](./return-position-impl-trait-in-trait.md)
+- [Effect checking](./effects.md)
 - [Pattern and Exhaustiveness Checking](./pat-exhaustive-checking.md)
 - [MIR dataflow](./mir/dataflow.md)
 - [Drop elaboration](./mir/drop-elaboration.md)

src/appendix/glossary.md

@@ -25,6 +25,7 @@ Term                                                  | Meaning
 <span id="drop-glue">drop glue</span>          &nbsp; |  (internal) compiler-generated instructions that handle calling the destructors (`Drop`) for data types.
 <span id="dst">DST</span>                      &nbsp; |  Short for Dynamically-Sized Type, this is a type for which the compiler cannot statically know the size in memory (e.g. `str` or `[u8]`). Such types don't implement `Sized` and cannot be allocated on the stack. They can only occur as the last field in a struct. They can only be used behind a pointer (e.g. `&str` or `&[u8]`).
 <span id="ebl">early-bound lifetime</span>     &nbsp; |  A lifetime region that is substituted at its definition site. Bound in an item's `Generics` and substituted using a `GenericArgs`. Contrast with **late-bound lifetime**. ([see more](https://doc.rust-lang.org/nightly/nightly-rustc/rustc_type_ir/sty/enum.RegionKind.html#bound-regions))
+<span id="effect">effects</span>               &nbsp; |  Right now only means const traits and `~const` bounds. ([see more](../effects.md))
 <span id="empty-type">empty type</span>        &nbsp; |  see "uninhabited type".
 <span id="fat-ptr">fat pointer</span>          &nbsp; |  A two word value carrying the address of some value, along with some further information necessary to put the value to use. Rust includes two kinds of "fat pointers": references to slices, and trait objects. A reference to a slice carries the starting address of the slice and its length. A trait object carries a value's address and a pointer to the trait's implementation appropriate to that value. "Fat pointers" are also known as "wide pointers", and "double pointers".
 <span id="free-var">free variable</span>       &nbsp; |  A "free variable" is one that is not bound within an expression or term; see [the background chapter for more](./background.md#free-vs-bound)

src/effects.md

@@ -0,0 +1,66 @@
+# Effects and effect checking
+
+Note: all of this describes the implementation of the unstable `effects` and
+`const_trait_impl` features. None of this implementation is usable or visible from
+stable Rust.
+
+The implementation of const traits and `~const` bounds is a limited effect system.
+It is used to allow trait bounds on `const fn` to be used within the `const fn` for
+method calls. Within the function, in order to know whether a method on a trait
+bound is `const`, we need to know whether there is a `~const` bound for the trait.
+In order to know whether we can instantiate a `~const` bound on a `const fn`, we
+need to know whether there is a `const_trait` impl for the type and trait being
+used (or whether the `const fn` is used at runtime, then any type implementing the
+trait is ok, just like with other bounds).
+
+We perform these checks via a const generic boolean that gets attached to all
+`const fn` and `const trait`. The following sections will explain the desugarings
+and the way we perform the checks at call sites.
+
+The const generic boolean is inverted to the meaning of `const`. In the compiler
+it is called `host`, because it enables "host APIs" like `static` items, network
+access, disk access, random numbers and everything else that isn't available in
+`const` contexts. So `false` means "const", `true` means "not const" and if it's
+a generic parameter, it means "maybe const" (meaning we're in a const fn or const
+trait).
+
+## `const fn`
+
+All `const fn` have a `#[rustc_host] const host: bool` generic parameter that is
+hidden from users. Any `~const Trait` bounds in the generics list or `where` bounds
+of a `const fn` get converted to `Trait<host> + Trait<true>` bounds. The `Trait<true>`
+exists so that associated types of the generic param can be used from projections
+like `<T as Trait>::Assoc`, because there are no `<T as ~const Trait>` projections for now.
+
+## `#[const_trait] trait`s
+
+The `#[const_trait]` attribute gives the marked trait a `#[rustc_host] const host: bool`
+generic parameter. All functions of the trait "inherit" this generic parameter, just like
+they have all the regular generic parameters of the trait. Any `~const Trait` super-trait
+bounds get desugared to `Trait<host> + Trait<true>` in order to allow using associated
+types and consts of the super traits in the trait declaration. This is necessary, because
+`<Self as SuperTrait>::Assoc` is always `<Self as SuperTrait<true>>::Assoc` as there is
+no `<Self as ~const SuperTrait>` syntax.
+
+## `typeck` performing method and function call checks.
+
+When generic parameters are instantiated for any items, the `host` generic parameter
+is always instantiated as an inference variable. This is a special kind of inference var
+that is not part of the type or const inference variables, similar to how we have
+special inference variables for type variables that we know to be an integer, but not
+yet which one. These separate inference variables fall back to `true` at
+the end of typeck (in `fallback_effects`) to ensure that `let _ = some_fn_item_name;`
+will keep compiling.
+
+All actually used (in function calls, casts, or anywhere else) function items, will
+have the `enforce_context_effects` method invoked.
+It trivially returns if the function being called has no `host` generic parameter.
+
+In order to error if a non-const function is called in a const context, we have not
+yet disabled the const-check logic that happens on MIR, because
+`enforce_context_effects` does not yet perform this check.
+
+The function call's `host` parameter is then equated to the context's `host` value,
+which almost always trivially succeeds, as it was an inference var. If the inference
+var has already been bound (since the function item is invoked twice), the second
+invocation checks it against the first.