Improve wording and examples about supertraits

Author: Havvy

src/items/traits.md

@@ -10,7 +10,7 @@ interface consists of [associated items], which come in three varieties:
 All traits define an implicit type parameter `Self` that refers to "the type
 that is implementing this interface". Traits may also contain additional type
 parameters. These type parameters (including `Self`) may be constrained by
-other traits and so forth as usual.
+other traits and so forth [as usual].
 
 Traits are implemented for specific types through separate [implementations].
 
@@ -48,71 +48,72 @@ Object safe traits can be the base trait of a [trait object]. A trait is
       and
     * Be a [method] that does not use `Self` except in the type of the receiver.
 * It must not have any associated constants.
+* All supertraits must also be object safe.
 
 ## Supertraits
 
-Trait bounds on `Self` are considered "supertraits". These are required to be
-acyclic. Supertraits are somewhat different from other constraints in that
-they affect what methods are available in the vtable when the trait is used as
-a [trait object]. Consider the following example:
+**Supertraits** are traits that are required to be implemented for a type to
+implement a specific trait. Furthermore, anywhere a [generic] or [trait object]
+is bounded by a trait, it has access to the associated items of its supertraits.
+
+Supertraits are declared by trait bounds on the `Self` type of a trait and
+transitively the supertraits of the traits declared in those trait bounds. It is
+an error for a trait to be its own supertrait.
+
+The following is an example of declaring `Shape` to be a supertrait of `Circle`.
 
 ```rust
 trait Shape { fn area(&self) -> f64; }
 trait Circle : Shape { fn radius(&self) -> f64; }
 ```
 
-The syntax `Circle : Shape` means that types that implement `Circle` must also
-have an implementation for `Shape`. Multiple supertraits are separated by `+`,
-`trait Circle : Shape + PartialEq { }`. In an implementation of `Circle` for a
-given type `T`, methods can refer to `Shape` methods, since the typechecker
-checks that any type with an implementation of `Circle` also has an
-implementation of `Shape`:
+And the following is the same example, except using [where clauses].
 
 ```rust
-struct Foo;
-
 trait Shape { fn area(&self) -> f64; }
-trait Circle : Shape { fn radius(&self) -> f64; }
-impl Shape for Foo {
-    fn area(&self) -> f64 {
-        0.0
-    }
-}
-impl Circle for Foo {
-    fn radius(&self) -> f64 {
-        println!("calling area: {}", self.area());
+trait Circle where Self: Shape { fn radius(&self) -> f64; }
+```
+
+This next example gives `radius` a default implementation using the `area`
+function from `Shape`.
 
-        0.0
+```rust
+# trait Shape { fn area(&self) -> f64; }
+trait Circle where Self: Shape {
+    fn radius(&self) -> f64 {
+        // A = pi * r^2
+        // so algebraically,
+        // r = sqrt(A / pi)
+        (self.area() /std::f64::consts::PI).sqrt()
     }
 }
-
-let c = Foo;
-c.radius();
 ```
 
 In type-parameterized functions, methods of the supertrait may be called on
-values of subtrait-bound type parameters. Referring to the previous example of
+values of subtrait-bound type parameters. Continuing the example of
 `trait Circle : Shape`:
 
 ```rust
 # trait Shape { fn area(&self) -> f64; }
 # trait Circle : Shape { fn radius(&self) -> f64; }
-fn radius_times_area<T: Circle>(c: T) -> f64 {
-    // `c` is both a Circle and a Shape
-    c.radius() * c.area()
+fn print_area_and_radius<C: Circle>(c: C) {
+    // Here we call the area method from the supertrait `Shape` of `Circle`.
+    println!("Area: {}", c.area());
+    println!("Radius: {}", c.radius());
 }
 ```
 
-Likewise, supertrait methods may also be called on trait objects.
+Likewise, here is an example of calling supertrait methods on trait objects.
 
 ```rust
 # trait Shape { fn area(&self) -> f64; }
 # trait Circle : Shape { fn radius(&self) -> f64; }
+# struct UnitCircle;
 # impl Shape for i32 { fn area(&self) -> f64 { 0.0 } }
 # impl Circle for i32 { fn radius(&self) -> f64 { 0.0 } }
 # let mycircle = 0i32;
-let mycircle = Box::new(mycircle) as Box<Circle>;
-let nonsense = mycircle.radius() * mycircle.area();
+let circle = Box::new(mycircle) as Box<dyn Circle>;
+let nonsense = circle.radius() * circle.area();
 ```
 
 [bounds]: trait-bounds.html
@@ -121,4 +122,6 @@ let nonsense = mycircle.radius() * mycircle.area();
 [RFC 255]: https://github.com/rust-lang/rfcs/blob/master/text/0255-object-safety.md
 [associated items]: items/associated-items.html
 [method]: items/associated-items.html#methods
-[implementations]: items/implementations.html
+[implementations]: items/implementations.html
+[as usual]: items/generics.html
+[where clauses]: items/generics.html#where-clauses

src/types.md

@@ -545,7 +545,7 @@ A *trait object* is an opaque value of another type that implements a set of
 traits. The set of traits is made up of an [object safe] *base trait* plus any
 number of [auto traits].
 
-Trait objects implement the base trait, its auto traits, and any super traits
+Trait objects implement the base trait, its auto traits, and any [supertraits]
 of the base trait.
 
 Trait objects are written as the optional keyword `dyn` followed by a set of
@@ -597,8 +597,8 @@ behind some type of pointer; for example `&dyn SomeTrait` or
 
  - a pointer to an instance of a type `T` that implements `SomeTrait`
  - a _virtual method table_, often just called a _vtable_, which contains, for
-   each method of `SomeTrait` that `T` implements, a pointer to `T`'s
-   implementation (i.e. a function pointer).
+   each method of `SomeTrait` and its [supertraits] that `T` implements, a
+   pointer to `T`'s implementation (i.e. a function pointer).
 
 The purpose of trait objects is to permit "late binding" of methods. Calling a
 method on a trait object results in virtual dispatch at runtime: that is, a
@@ -712,3 +712,4 @@ impl Printable for String {
 [issue 33140]: https://github.com/rust-lang/rust/issues/33140
 [_PATH_]: paths.html
 [_LIFETIME_OR_LABEL_]: tokens.html#lifetimes-and-loop-labels
+[supertraits]: items/traits.html#supertraits